Rescue on Tatooine

Rescue on Tatooine

Wizards of the Coast produces a fairly nice line of pre-painted Star Wars minis. Normally I don't like playing with pre-paints but we've been using these to test out No Limits and although I've been working on painting up a few I'm no where near having even one army done. This battle is a basic rescue operation at 1000 points. Princess Leia has taken her personal yacht to Tatooine to rescue an Imperial informant. Unfortunately for her the Imperials have caught wind of her plan. A local cell of Rebel insurgents led by Oona Fortella are holding the informant in a compound outside of Bestine Spaceport. A platoon of Imperial Stormtroopers have been dispatched under the command of Lt. Derker Steel to prevent the informants escape. The bounty hunter Dengar has been hired by the Imperials to bolster their strength and probe droids have been attached to two of the three squads.

We went with a split deployment to make things more interesting.


Insurgent leader Oona Fortella draws first blood as she guns down the Sergent of Beta Squad.

Stormtrooper Squads Beta and Gamma advance towards the compound while squad Alpha provides covering fire. Squad Alpha and a Rebel Fleet squad engage in a heavy fire fight from opposite sides of the road. Both squads take casualties but the rebels, lacking heavy armor, get the worst of it.

The fighting gets more brutal across the road but the armored Imperial troops continue to shrug off blast after blast. Let it never be said Stormtrooper armor is mealy ceremonial.

Despite having a height advantage the insurgents aren't doing much better than the fleet troopers. Squad Gamma and Dengar Kill all but a lone Jawa in short order.

The Rebel squad fighting with Squad Alpha falls back from their position. The other Rebels fire on Squad Gamma but most of their squad is out of range so they have little effect.

The Rebels switch their attention to Squad Beta who are closer but again the armor of the Stormtroopers proves it usefulness. Things are looking bad for the Rebels. Their Fleet Troopers have taken heavy casualties and the insurgents in the compound are about to be surrounded.

Squad Alpha leaves their position and this time it's Beta squad who provides covering fire. On the other side of the compound squad Gamma move forward with little opposition.

Suddenly the Jawa insurgent comes out of hiding and shoots a Stormtrooper. A hail of blaster bolts will lay him low moments later.

With no hope of victory the Rebels withdraw to their ship and the insurgents in the town surrender.

Notes: The imperial victory here was due to totally improbable die rolls. I would estimate I made over 60% of my required rolls and that's pretty high considering I only had a 40% or less chance of success on most of my test. My wife couldn't believe how many armor saves I made. Her troops where hitting and wounding just fine but my armor was holding even against weapons with modifiers. I found the probe droids with scanners to be immensely helpful for the squads they were assigned to. All in all I would call it a good battle and Leia escaped so we could have a follow up game.

I had some time today to work on these guys. Unfortunately I was pretty sick today which didn't do anything for my speed. I've lost track of exactly how long I've been on these guys but I'm probably not moving fast enough.
Well Vinnie was the only one without skin and hair so I started with him. I thought the blue hair would help him stand out a bit and lend to the space pirate ideas as well.
I usually work back and forth in a group. Whatever model I just finished a step on gets the next step. Vinnie got several steps and all that's really left is touchup and finishing the base which I'm going to do as a group.
Here's the whole group as they are at the moment. Vinnie is mostly done and I finished the warpaint and eyes on the others. I'm very close to being done with this group which is good since they are suppose to be speed paints. I had a hard time with the eyes on these guys. They arn't all that small but my eyes are getting bad and I just can't see them well anymore even with magnification. Oh well I guess I'm just growing old.

Well I had some extra time today as well since we had a client who didn't show. Most of the group details up to this point were finished so I started working on the individual details starting with skin and hair.

Because I intended to have variations in skin tone and hair color I did each seperately. I put down the skin tone then mixed a wash of licen purple and charred brown.
After the wash dried I highlighted the skin and did the hair.

I got four of them done to this point. I haven't done eyes because I plan to give them all matching warpaint that will run through the eye area. also I haven't done the weapons yet but they will mostly be getting some weathering with metalics and I usually save metalics for last. I didn't get to vinnie yet. I saved him for last because he's the most complicated. I've also come up with names for the rest of his crew. Left to right they are: Liza, Rod Man, Gomez, and Fabio.

Well these guys seem to be good and cursed. I didn't have to work today but I didn't get to my studio till 10:30am then I had to go to lunch at 11:30am with my wife. Then about 2:00pm the power went out and didn't come back on until 4:00pm. Then at 5:00pm I had to pick my wife up from work. I still have some major family task to do tonight as well so there goes my day of painting.

Well before lunch I managed to slap on some red paint. I often go from largest color to smallest. It makes it seem like I'm getting done faster that way. Unfortunately I managed to pick the wrong red. I was going to use vallejo scar red but instead picked up gory red. I decided just to work with it.
When I came back from lunch I started highlighting. First with bloody red mixed about 50% with gory red then with bloody red as a final. These highlights were very loose and fast. Not as random as a drybrushing but not smooth like more careful highlights. For troops this still look nice and like an impressionist painting it looks quite smooth from a proper viewing distance. Some would say that at game distance the looser highlights show up better.

Just for kicks I added a white shirt on a couple of the figs. These were highlighted up from a grey base with ivory white.

Well here's where I am at the moment. I got the black areas touched up then I mixed black with a light blue for the first highlight. Unfortunately I only got two out of three of the figures done before I had to go. Hopefully I'll be able to finish later tonight.

Well I just relized my graphic has a typo. Oh well I'm sure I'll fix it soon. Anyhow. Yes I'm suppose to be working on my Tramp Steamer project but I was starting to feel overloaded with pulp projects so I decided to take a quick break and paint a few space pirates. The first group up are a squad of Duct Rats from The Bloodborn Crew. Duct Rats are basically going to be the lowliest squad in my space pirate list. This group of Duct Rats is led by Vinnie the fellow with the mowhawk. The Bloodborn Crew colors are red and black and they have two red stripes of vertical warpaint or tatoos going down their face through their eyes.

So here's Vinnie and his Duct Rats. I cleaned the mold lines then brushed them with a soft brass brush. Then I mounted them on round bases.

After that I puttied their base slots with Elmers wood putty. I tried to keep the putty thin on top of the base.

My plan for their bases is that they will look like they are walking through a rusted out space hulk with debris strewn everywhere. I've used a bunch of plastic bits from a 1/35 scale weapons sprue from Tamya's WWII line.
I was careful not to leave a lot of recognizable bits so I used mostly the pieces of tripods and other less recognizable parts.
Vinnie got a big ammo box on the edge of his base with random bits of loot sticking out.

After I finished their bases I primed them with Duplicolor black primer.

Now it's Dinner time but I hope to return to these guys before the night is out and start painting them. My space pirate army will be painted more loosely than a lot of my more recent paintjobs. I'm hopeing to use this army to try and establish a style that will enable me to paint troops up faster than my current style does without sacraficing too much quality. The characters in this army will however still get nicer paint jobs than the rank and file.

Reaper Chronoscope!

Reaper Miniatures just announced a new line of miniatures! You can find their announcement here.

I'm quite excited about this. Reaper is my favorite miniature company but for the last several years my interest in the Fantasy genre' has be waning. I was somewhat excited when Reaper started talking about a 28mm version of their CAV game but that never materialized. Fortunately rather than abandon some great sculpts they have decided to use Chronoscope to release not only these figs but also as a test bed for new ideas. This kind of fresh change of pace is something you usually only expect from single sculptor lines and I think it's great to see such a well established company branching out and looking at new things. The great thing about Reaper picking up new genre' is that you can find Reaper figures in local shops alongside Games Workshop and some of the other bigger labels but there isn't a lot of variety as those games seem to copy each other. If the figure above is any indicator we can look forward to Sci-Fi figs that aren't slathered in gothic iconography and that's quite refreshing!

B.M.A.P. Unholy Alliance Episode 2

Unholy Alliance Episode 2

Late March 1919. Members of La Brigade Mobiles Des Affaires Paranormales guard a farmhouse outside of Paris where a German occultist recovers from wounds he suffered at St. Huberts two weeks prior. It has been discovered that the man is a member of a secret society known as the Thule Society. Little is known about this secret organization but the B.M.A.P. Agents have been warned to keep an eye out for any rescue attempt. As further security the agents have been assigned a few French Foreign Legionnaires but they are suppose to keep a low profile.

As dusk approaches several figures are seen on a hill south of the farmhouse. They appear to be German mercenaries. Two columns of figures then emerge from the woods on either side of the hill. It's difficult to tell what they are at first but it soon becomes clear they are walking dead! B.M.A.P. Agents Claude, Selene, and Marie and their four men take up positions to defend the house.

Agent Claude and Agent Selene take up a position near one of the weaker spots in the farms defenses.

The agents begin to fire on the horrid creatures approaching the farmhouse. A few of the undead are destroyed but they continue to advance.

As the undead approach the German mercenaries begin to fire from the hill. One of the B.M.A.P. Men is shot down.

As the undead reach the farmhouse another defender is shot.

The Legionnaires defend the back hedge as the undead creatures charge the farmhouse. Another defender is killed at the gate and things start to look grim.

With no more targets to shoot at the German mercenaries move down from their position and start to advance on the farmhouse.

Agent Claude defends the weak point while Agent Selene starts up one of the trucks.

The fighting starts to get intense. Outnumbered the defenders start to loose men quickly.

Agent Selene backs the truck over two of the undead crushing them but nearly hitting one of the Legionnaires in the process.

She then pulls forward and plows straight through the west side of the hedge. Just as the German mercenaries reach the gate.

The Germans rush into the back yard of the farmhouse shooting but they miss all their targets.

Agent Selene gets out of her truck and shoots one of the Germans. Another is downed by a Legionnaire.

Agent Claude fights hard against his attackers and has only one left.

Rutger Howser Thule Society member and employer of the mercenaries decides it's time to get involved. He carefully advances hoping he won't be seen.

Agent Marie destroys another undead creature while under fire from the mercenaries. She's not hit but another Legionnaire goes down leaving only one of the brave soldiers standing.

Agent Marie moves into cover while agent Claude dispatches the last of his attackers.

Rutger Houser sneaks into a stand of trees and fires on agent Selene hitting her but not wounding her.

Anja Weiss, Thule Society mystic, senses that the undead under her control have all been destroyed. She moves towards to farmhouse to see if she can lend her allies aid.

Tired of getting shot at Agent Selene gets back in her truck and pulls back into the yard to support her fellow agents.

Too late to help with the battle Anja and the German Sergeant flee as Rutger covers their escape.

Anja and the Sergeant make it safely to the woods.

After being wounded twice Rutger decides its time to run as well.

He doesn't get far however before agent Selene catches up to him. Bleeding and tired he give up without further struggle.

The Farmhouse is safe for now and another Thule Society member has been captured in the process but this gives the B.M.A.P. agents little relief. Many of their men were killed or wounded and they now know this Thule Society has discovered a way to raise the dead and control them!

Notes:

That concluded the battle for this episode. It was a clear victory for the B.M.A.P agents but they lost a lot of men during the fighting. They were outnumbered both in numbers and points but had a defensive position and more guns. They scored very few hits in the three turns it took the skeletons to reach the farmhouse which hurt them badly in hand to hand. All in all I'd say the battle went pretty well though. If you missed the first game you can find part 1 here and part 1.5 here.