Will These Bombers Get Through?

 We've been without power since about 1:00am Friday. It's now Sunday morning. Hurricane Helene has been a major problem for huge areas of the US southeast. I'm posting from my cell phone. I have the fridge and a some fans running off my generator. Might be a couple more days, there have been shockingly few lineman trucks in town. 

After cleaning up the yard and checking on things at work, I got the decals done on the He 111s for Check Your 6. They're game ready! Models are Warlord Blood Red Sky 1/200 scale. 

Photographed in the 111's natural home... The glass-top patio table! Markings are a mishmash meant to look OK, even though they're wildly wrong. Most folks won't know.  Now, to get back to normal and get a game scheduled. 

A Challenger Has Appeared...

 For the Battle of Britain, that is. Joining the Spitfires I finished painting up a few weeks ago, I have some RAF Hurricanes! These are also Warlord BRS models. I added magnets so they'd be compatible with my flying stands.

I hope you like. I think the squadron markings are actually a Spitfire unit, but one applies the decal one has. I think they're pretty nifty. I also picked up a triplet of He111s which are getting close to completion. I'm still working through the decals of those. Of course I'll post pics when they're ready. 

Tonight, we wait out on the fringes of HURRICANE Helene. Nice timing there, eh? Will do my best to keep the family safe. Be well!

AAR: Stardust Ground - Space Marines and Space Bugs

 Well, my trip to Southern Front was cancelled. Sick mom, sick father-in-law. Stuff happens, whatcha gonna do? Well, what I did was get in a game of Stardust Ground with Mark. He's played more SDG than anyone but me, so he's always a good opponent. Since I just finished up those new Space Marines, they were of course on the short list of forces to be on the table. The Bugs, Mark's favorite, were an obvious second since their abilities had been tweaked since their last outing and they had a couple new units to test out. 

The Marines and the Bug forces are searching the area for lost relics scattered from a recent dropship crash.

I set up a 4' x 4' battlefield. Forces were deployed in opposite corners with three objectives diagonally across the table. Only two of three objectives would count, but we wouldn't know which until the game ended.

My deployed forces, the bugs have begun their moves. 

And after our first moves. Man, those bugs are quick.

Blue Bugs (the basic chompers) smash into my Marine squad on the right in no time. My Rhino had managed to zot one of them with its Storm Bolter. This made the close combat quite manageable. 

I have more coming in the center though!

The fuzziness of victory on the right!

But on the right, the Fire Bugs crash into my Terminators. The Termies are tough but were outclassed by the big swarm. Stardust Ground skews close combat in favor of larger units and those bugs getting a +8 to my +5 on the close combat roll was a tough pill to swallow.

But I've got buddies! The Assault Marines arrived in a convenient location to help and the Dreadnought charged into the mess as well. The Dread embarrassed itself getting immobilized by the bugs. I also lost a Termie.

Shit's about to get real though, as the bugs have reinforcements heading up the hill... Blues and a damn Doom Scorpion.

My squad in the middle is in for it. Chaplain Charlie does his best to keep the boys motivated.

Hazzah! A second Dreadnought arrives as a reinforcement for my Marines. Convenient location, it spews rounds at the Purps. Sadly, it only manages some pins. 

Driven by whatever drives a gigantic space bug, they absolutely crush the remains of the center squad shortly after. Ugh, what a loss!

Not to be outdone, the Doom Scorpion's first round of close combat goes remarkably well, absolutely dismantling the Assault Marines. What a terrible turn for the Marines!

The crap continued as those Purps who survived the Assault Cannon fire from the Dreadnought gobbled up a Marine stand and Librarian Dan.

Super Rhino gets a measure of revenge killing another stand of bugs with its Storm Bolter.

The Godforsaken Scorpion does what the Blues failed to do finishing off the immobilized Dreadnought. 

At the end of the game, my Marines had been thoroughly whipped, but I'd managed to nab two of the three objective locations, and wouldn't you know it, they were both the "live" objectives! Mark won a military victory by all measures, but the Marines had managed to secure the relic components. 

     That was a blast, even though I got completely wrecked. I was overconfident with the Terminators and they paid the price. The Dreadnought that was with them was also a stinker, but it had cursed dice. The other Dreadnought, functionally identical, had a terrific battle. The Assault Marines were brilliant but simply overwhelmed by the mighty Doom Scorpion which worked as well as I'd hoped. The Bug "Reinforcement" rule that was added which allows them to recycle units that have been wiped out worked very nicely and didn't feel too dominating. More games will need to be played to confirm that.

     The Bugs are good. Very good. They no longer require tweaks whatsoever. When we talked about the game over lunch, Mark had a good idea that Bog enemies should be able to disrupt the Hive Mind, so we came up with a mechanism to do so, which should allow Marine, Cultist and Robot Armies to throw a wet blanket on the Bug party from time to time. The Red Guard and Dawgs will simply need to outnumber the Bugs by 2-3 units at the start of a game in order to keep up since I don't envision either of those forces having the right technology to disrupt Bug communications. 

Womenfolk

 Because my order with Brigade Games was backordered, I picked up some minis from Bombshell since I needed to have something for my game. Those Bombshell models were a joy to paint up.

The Pilot, Doctor Woolworth, Dora the Explorer and she-who-has-yet-to-be-named. She looks like an "Esmerelda."

Not to be outdone, the Brigade order arrived today, a week before the con. 

Yeah. Perfect, right? Well, either way, I ended up with some cool models. 😊

Premium Cabana # 1 - 3

 OK, so maybe they're not as Premium as the ones at the waterpark, but they're much less expensive!

The three huts for my Xiti tribe were completed last evening. A hell of a job for me, knocking them out in 26 hours, which includes a full night's sleep and a trip to the arena for MONSTER JAM yesterday.

Look for the flying man! Twas good crazy fun. Loud as hell, but awesome.

Huts! Nothing fancy, but two steps up from serviceable. Dora says hello. I promise she's not about to torch the huts.

This Week's Work!

 So, a bit of a mix this week. First up are some 15mm Space Marines. Pretty sure the minis are from Khurasan. I had enough to make a full Assault Squad and three small-based special characters. This assortment will add a lot of Space Marine flavor to my Stardust: Ground Space Marine force. 

A group shot, sans light box. 

And close ups. These are the pictures that will end up on the game cards.

A stand of Assault Marines

A Librarian (psyker). The mini was customized with a cape and Force Staff, removing the chainsword.

A Chaplain

And a Veteran Sergeant to round out the squad.

So, if you're at all familiar with GW Space Marines you'll be immediately familiar with those titles and their functions. I'll have their cards together in no time... I've already done all the formatting, I just need to insert the pictures.

Next up, and I started these late yesterday afternoon, so I've made quick progress...

Some huts for the pulp game I'm hosting in North Carolina in two weeks! Main construction material is cashew and almond cans with cereal box cardstock roofs. One of the minis I need for the scenario is posed in front for scale. She's a 32mm Bombshell Miniatures explorer who's already been named Dora.

Construction of the three huts nearly done. Room thatching is simply white paper but with a frilly edge. I spackled the outsides of the walls to add texture.

And after a couple blasts of spray paint. More pictures to follow later, plus the minis I need to finish with the quickness.

Oh, since Brigade Games fouled up my order, I ordered suitable replacements directly from Bombshell Minis. Everything is of course in stock and shipping was quick. Thanks so much Bombshell!

Clearing the Queue

 By no means done with the plastic mountain, but I've made some good progress knocking stuff out recently. First us, some drones / hover bots that came with the troopers I painted up a month and a half ago. Models are Warlord Gates of Antares range. They're kind of neat and I like how the came out, especially next to their two-legged kin.

It's always tempting to add a lot of oddball stuff to bases so I think just doing two shows a lot of restraint. 😁

"You take the low road, unit D-121 and I will take the high... brzzztt. Over."

And the other model I cranked out in the last few days was this beauty. It's a 1/56 (28mmish) Sherman VC Firefly for the zero of you who don't know. I got it from Mike a few weeks back when we were playing Blood & Plunder. It's a 2-part resin print (hull + turret) from Tina's Tiny Tanks. Mike sells them on his webstore here : Gator Games. I'm sure the markings are wrong, but it looks  close enough and that's all I'm concerned with. British tank + bigass tankslayer gun. 

Obligatory B&W photo of the WW2 vehicle.