Rogue Trader : Battle at the Farm - Marines troops

Crimson Fist Marines are in my mind since the the first time I flipped through the RT rulebook. The cover art is splendid and marked my mind for a long time. I really enjoy this project.

I need a pretty small force for the original scenario, I added some characters like the Flag army bearer and the body guard for Pedro Cantor. So, I completed my small force of plastic models with metal Marines : Sergents, Heavy weapon Marines and Characters.

First Squad : 

Second Squad :

Third Squad :

Assembling RTB01 Marines:

I discovered how much it's difficult to give a nice posture to the RTB01 Marines. I adjusted the torso and the top of the legs to avoid the Gorillaz syndrome. I reduce the size of the foot of all the Marines to avoid the Tahiti Bob foot syndrome. I sculpted new hands to hold their Bolter. I sculpted new nails on the shoulder pads. I renforced the energetic armor with square plates. And to finish I created a greenstuff stamp for the fist icon on the second shoulder pad.

RT Marines are charectized by their Toughness 3, they're closer to the basic human soldiers than the following versions. Human soldier! Yes but they're particulary well equiped. So, that's why I added lot of bags around their belt. This is typilly the kind of detail easy to make witj small balls of green stuff.

Space Marines are weak without their armor, I never understand why some of them cross the battlefield without helmet... I want to keep safe my brand new soldier of the far futur. That the reason of all my Marines have a helmet : On head or at the belt.

 

Characters convertions :

I planned to creat a scenic base for all my Marines, inspired by the RT cover art. The main characters of the scene are never been produced by Citadel and some conversions are necessary.

Rogue Trader : Battle at the farm

Like some of you, I succumbed to t"The battle at the farm, fever". This New project in the far futur of Warhammer will occupy me during all the summer season. 

All begin at the Oldhammer Day 2018 when a nice guy named Gil Richez gave me a fist full of RTB01 Marines. At the same moment, JB Garidel told me that Fogou Miniatures will lauch a KS for resin cast ruined farm for the RT scenario The battle at the farm... So, this is how the project is born.

Since some weeks, pictures of the Fogou sceneries started to appear on the web and you probably discovered like me the fantastic work of Curis on his blog. I think that ours works on the same scenario will produce a good synergy and give us all the mojo we need.

To finish 2 links with the realm of Zhu blog. First is the Zhu top 10 battle reports for this scenario (here) and the second concerning some propositions to balance the game (here). For my own game, I also planned to add some nice stuff to give a chance to the Ork patrol.

Marines troops :

Ork patrol : 

Terrain :  

Landsknecht Half Giant

Hi !! New mercenary creature for my growing Landsknecht Dwarves army. Here is an Half Giant, this nice chap is the result of an uncommun union of a female Giant and a "brave" Ogre... So, this guy is a big Ogre or a small Giant it depend, it's a matter of perspective :) David Stafford the owner Mr Saturday Mumbling Blog wrote another excelent background of Randolf, check the Wolfbane art Facebook group.

This model was sculpted by Alessio Cisbani from Wolfbane-art studio. This project is born on the Oldhammer facebook group and after 4 weeks of work, 50 pieces was cast in resin, multi-parts kit. 26€ shipping cost included, it's a pretty fair price!

I added some lndsknecht stuff to integrat this model in my Dwarves army, this is the last unit and I planned to take some army pictures next week.

 

Oldhammer day France 2018!!

Hello every one !! Last weekend I organized and participated to the annual meeting of French Old School miniatures lovers. Lot of great moments and good gaming.

In fact, I haven't take pictures during the event ... So, thank goodness JB do the job and he just finish to write a first part of week end report, check here.

But I want to share a last thing with you. During the Oldhammer day 2017, a man named Gof came to us and gave us a small box of miniatures. Approximatively 30 Chaos models : Slaanesh Champions, Bestmen, Greater demon, etc.. For FREE!! He gave without expecting anything in return. An exemple to be followed by many Evilbayers !!

JB, Gof and me

To honored his gift, JB give a new life to these old Chaos miniatures. They are now in his collection of Rogue Trader models.  From my side, I decided to thank Gof with a painted Olivia, the last commemorative BOYL model.

Oldhammer Day 2018 - Best donation award - Gof

Nippon army project (Last part) : Army pictures

Here we are, the last part of the project! After 9 months of painting and historical searching to understand the feodal japan culture... I enjoy the moment of the army pictures :) to increase the army effect, I added some miniatures to the originals regiments, particulary for arquebusiers and spearmen.

Warhammer Nippon tactics
Leading a Nippon army, you have at your fingertips a unusual blend of devastating close combat troops, lethal missiles men and terrifying artillery. Despite this, it's a very difficult army to command properly. Because of the hight cost of all the differents troop types. They will probably be outnumbered , and so the troops must be used to their full petential to win.

The artillery should be used to support the close combat troops, rather than merely trying to wear down an approaching enemy. If they are carefully placed , artillery seriously hamper the movement of enemy regiments. Arquebusiers, if positionned behind cover, will be costly to overcome, but cannot be counted on to withstand a sustained attack from any number of enemy shock troops. The samurai are excelent archers, as well as good close combat fighters. It's worth trying to weaken the best enemy troops with bowfire before finishing them off with a charge. However, it would be absolutely disastrous to let them get bogged down and whittled away in an archery duel with large numbers of enemy bowmen.

The number of options available with Nippon army is almost limitless. Try to use a combination of protected arquebusiers and artillery to set up cross fires, and use threatened charges from the samurai to herd enemy units into these killing zones. The Kamikaze troops and ninja are probably best stationed in the weaker regiments, the enemy will then get a very nasty surprise when attacked!

So, what next? For the moment, I prepare the French Oldhammer Day. The event take place in my home town of Metz in the east side of France and it will be a part of a large event organized by my club Blitz57 (May, 12th and 13th 2018). Many oldschool games are planned during the weekend : WH40.000 2nd, Rogue Trader, Necromunda, Mordheim and of course WHFB!! Other good thing of the week end, it's the anual meeting moment of famous Oldschool French gamers... pictures soon :)

Nippon army project (part seven) : Headquarter

New step for the Nippon project. The general Headquarter (Hon-jin).This vignette represent the general (Daimyo) and his staff. The seated character have generic style of a Daymio from the Sengoku period. Banners (Noborri/Uma-jirushi) indicate the general is Mori Hidemoto.

The staff is composed by tacticians, attendants, messenger, banners carriers, bow and spear holder. Four Makku screens surround them, usually the screens are marked with the clan colors but I decided to painted them with generic colors. By this way, I keep the possibility to switch the banners with other clan banner… polyvalent Hon-jin J The HQ can’t be complete without the war drum (Taiko) and the trumpet shell (Hora-gai). With the banners, these elements are the best way to command on large Battlefield.

Last touch is the baggage. A pair of light packhorses with rations or light weapons and the ox with the heavy chariot loaded with tents or stakes for camp installations.

Last words about books to complete your samurai culture. “The History Japanese Armor” Vol1 - From Yayoi to Muromachi period. And the Vol2 – From The Warring Stats to Edo period. These books are useful for beginner who want to start a samurai army. Lot of information about troops, army organization, banners, armors, weapons etc…fully translated in English.

Next post, the family pictures. See you next week!

Nippon army project (part six) : Monks

Hello, another batch of warrior-monks to complete the ranks. Sculpted by Trevis Dixon and Mark Copplestone.  I added a palanquin (kago) to my collection, that model will be the centerpiece of my probable next WHFB scenario.

The next steps in the project concerning the reinforcement of the Ashigarus units,  around 20 miniatures to paint. And to finish the Headquarter camp of the General.