Extra bonus Halloween post.

Do you ever get that thing where you suddenly get something that, once it clicks, seems blindingly obvious ?  You give a silent internal "Doh!" and hope that no one else notices your Homer Simpson moment ?

I've just figured out why it's "Zombtober" rather than "Julombie".

Teri and Jezza

 But anyway.  I've bought witches costumes and tacky plastic broomsticks in preparation for my role as Skellington King; shepherding little witches 'round the neighbourhood and still getting them home for bed at normal time (fingers crossed).

Don

 This pumpkin is huge, 2' across. the pattern is supposed to represent glasses, as drawn by No1 daughter, faithfully transposed by yours truely.  Whilst not immediately scarey looking, he's also not someone you'd let in to your house....

Madam Secretary

And displacing the brick of scrutiny, the scarey looking one.  Back to normal in the morning...

3* General Mentunfor

With the arrival of another Army Group, 4*General Zukhov finally gets what he’s been campaigning for, a fifth star and the formal title ‘Lord General’.  The Plennipotentiate who has been actually running the war, 3* Gen Sommonovic (Vostroya) Chief of Land Warfare, gets his forth star and becomes CinC of 72AG.  Gen Zukhov’s former Chief of Staff, 2* Gen Mentunfor (Krieg) Chief of the Imperial General Staff, is also promoted to fill Sommonovic’s vacant space. 

Muntenfor would privately acknowledge that in spite of actually being the best candidate for the position, his appointment has more to do with the 'Lord General' sending a message to Imperial forces on Devos IV by appointing a DKK officer to run the war.  

3* Gen Mentunfor's previous position as CIGS had enabled him to ensure that, with the exception of 'the Lord General's' immediate offices, the Head Quarters of of 72AG and it's constituent Corps are as professionally staffed and run as possible.  This role has been taken on by the newly promoted 2* Gen Samkon from the Kataan 4th Imperial Guard Regiment.

In his youth, Mentunfor found himself as one of two survivors of his regiment, he slipped through the gaps in the Adminisphere and spent three years driving a Cargo 8 for a company conducting logistics for the Imperial Navy on Feurenguanna in the Beephar System.  He then travelled for some time with a close companion until he found himself on Agripinna, where an opportunity presented itself for him to resume his career, he took it, rising to command of 44th Tank Regiment in a phenomenally quick time, largely due to the way the DKK wage war. 

In a career which rolled around the Segmentum Obscuras like a censor full of burning cordite, once even being marooned with the remains of his regiment on one world because the rest of the 'Guard formation commanders thought that the DKK's actions were criminal.  Mentunfor took this on board when he later attended the Staff College course at Agripinna.  

Since then, he and the very few other DKK officers like him have made a material difference to the integration of DKK units into more diverse 'Guard formations. He has trust issues, exemplified by the inclusion of DKK members of 72AG's pool of Liaison Officers. He still favours traditional DKK methods but is flexible enough to speak with and accommodate the views of others. 

As Chief of Land Warfare, he is now the 'Lord General's' plenipotentiary for running the war.  Where Sommonovic was only responsible for 72AG, Mentunfor also has 3422AG to worry about.  The 'Lord General's current instruction is for the capture Xyphonica, the former Capital City of the whole planet and last stronghold of the rebels.  Mentunfor's plan would be for a slowly moving, ever tightening noose.  However, he is painfully aware of the 'Lord General's predilection for the grand gesture; he can only watch on in frustration as the 'Lord General's ill informed staff manage the annihilation of almost an entire IG regiment. 

Fortunately, he is already on good terms with the other three plenipotentiates.   

Thunderhind (Cheers, Masta Cheef)

So I had a quiet hour and so I went into the garage and retrieved the kits to do a fuselage comparison and cogitate about making these things fit.

So you can see where the Hind body dramatically shrinks down to the tail boom.  There'll be a band there somewhere, where the hind body will fit over the Thunderbolt .

Overall, though, I was quite surprised that these two are almost exactly the same length, and that there will a point where this conversion can be made.

And you can see from the picture below that the cut will have to from the rear of the hind engine nacelle through the weapon pylon mounting and then cut down to finish where the crew door is, just in front of the Thunderbolt wing. 

But the thing is, what I decide to do, it is important that it goes right first time, 'cause I have to do two and they should look the same.   And pleasingly, the Thunderbolt kits have a whole sprue of bombs !  Hurrah !

And in other news, I've found the two missing Chimerasaurs; which means I can see what I did last time and then do the next two the same.  As Col Hertford says, keep fighting the long hobby war !

Pushing into Xyphonica from the North East.

As soon as 3422 AG had deployed to the eastern side of Xyphonica, the Lord General wanted them to attack.  He had grudgingly put up with the hiatus in operations as 72AG waited for 3422AG to move into position.  The promotion and parades kept him happy but it had taken six weeks to move into position.  44 Corps to the north motored all the way round the city into position.

For some reason, possibly to do with a desire to just get on with it, possibly due to pressure from the Lord General’s ADC himself, 785 Div was committed to an attack with only vague objectives and insufficient preparation.

The 4th Llar Heavy Infantry were chosen to spearhead into the urban area. The Cadian 44th Tank regiment and their Heavy Tank sister regiment were intimately supported by the chimera mounted 66th Gunrun Rifles and the 80th Bram pioneers. 785 Div were going to hold ground seized, the four battalions of 1st Lydian Lunar Fusiliers were held in reserve and the five battalions of the 4th Llar Heavy Infantry pushed into the suburbs.

The PDF had four years to prepare the ground.  There were minefields, trip lines, automated gun positions, cached chemical weapons and prepared machine gun nests and sniper posts, all tunnel linked.  The 4th Llar Heavy Infantry were equipped for all weathers and carried everything.  The consequence of this was that they habitually wore greatcoats and silvered armoured shoulder plates and crested helmets.  These men carried everything. 

Shifu Delk pushed the 460 men of his Eeen (Llar: Battalion), the 3^rd Eeen of the Llar 4^th, forward on the left flank of the advance.  With the blessings of the Celestial Emperor, his men had been clearing bunkers all day; they were starting to run low on grenades, flamer juice and rockets for their missile launcher.

Squads of the third Eeen moved up through the shot up ghetto of the Parvell District. Three to five stories of windowless ruin, slowly deserted by its population over the last four years as the city was bombed; as the food supply dried up, those remaining moved out of Parvell leaving nothing but an eerie silence.

Shifu Delk’s command team moved along those same streets, with the Eeen’s companies and platoons arrayed to the front and both sides.  The other four Eeen of the 4^th Llar Heavies would be to their left and right, in strict number order.  Shifu Delk took it as a matter of pride that, like every other Llar Officer for thousands of years, he deployed his forces in order of precedence, from left to right with the 3^rd Company in the centre of his line of advance.

Gen Shmeil, the commander of 785 Div saw the Llar institutional inflexibility as somewhat of a liability.  However, it did mean that by staying in contact with the regiment’s CO, they could be relied upon to hold a line, to not move out of formation.  Their lack of imagination would make the Llar predictable for their Superiors.  And, it would later prove, for the rebels as well.

Firefights would break out.  Sometimes there would be a casualty or two, but mostly there would be sporadic small arms fire which sent the Llar to ground.  Platoon attacks would quite often find a dozen or so barely serviceable weapons, held in place by sandbags with their triggers tied – the line would run over a fulcrum such as the back of a chair to a cup or tin which would slowly fill with water fed by a makeshift gutter fed from a bundle of sodden cloth.

The arrangements had obviously been set up weeks before. And made ready and triggered in every case as the first Llar elements were actually passing by.   The ambushes were initiated in each case by a live shooter who escaped, possibly through subterranean tunnels.  The Llar would spend time moving elements of a rifle company into position before conducting a platoon assault on each of these positions.  This could take hours, depending on the street layout and the condition of the buildings.

The weather was still warm, soldiers mouths were parched by brick and concrete dust.  Support weapons from the mortar and firesupport elements were distributed amongst the rifle companies, people not helping hump their equipment through the rubble strewn streets would be carrying extra water, AT missiles or more grenades for the squad GLs.  They were well wrapped and working hard.

The lead platoons soon learned to spot mostly intact buildings with the gutters ripped off.  But it seemed to Shifu Delf that this was yet another delaying tactic; three times this circumstance was reported and the company went firm and the platoon assault laid on – only to find that the guttering was just not there and the building was empty.  More hours wasted.  Delf had no choice but to continue.

His men were becoming tired and frustrated.  They were also becoming increasingly uneasy at using up flamer juice and grenades, both hand and launcher, on ‘enemy positions’ which were largely empty.  Hearing from the other Shifu, he knew that the other Eeen had been involved in large scale contacts with well-prepared ambush conditions.  But also that most of the Eeen were experiencing the same frustrations he was.

Shifu Delf’s 3^rd Eeen are in the centre of the 4^th Llar Heavy’s axis of advance.  What happened to them next would play out across the entire front in a ripple out from the 3^rd Eeen to the very edges of the advance.   It was now dusk. Having starting before dawn, he could see that his soldiers were now flagging.  Most of the Rifle Companies had used up all of their flamer juice and most of their grenades.  Their mortar sections and fire support were slower to move each time.

The 3^rd Eeen needed to rest.  Map checks indicated that their mid-day objective was only 300m in front.  The five Eeen would make the line and halt to rest, beginning their advance again in the morning.  Tomorrow, Div HQ would move the rest of their teeth arms into the city as the 4^th Llar Heavies would push on.  With a cautious advance through the ruined urban landscape, covering each other and moving from cover to cover, securing their positions at every tactical bound, Shifu Delf would have his men ready to ‘go firm’ for the night in an hour.

But then on the 3^rd Eeen’s left, another half-cocked ambush.  Seeing the single shots, the platoon coming under fire anxious to get to the end of tiring and frustrating day, the platoon immediately launched their assault, without waiting for the other platoons in the company to move into supporting positions. Their mortar and auto cannon teams were still mobile.  Soldiers habitually touched their amulets and talismans and cursed the lack of any real enemy. 

The company commander, tired like the rest of the men, thirsty with the taste of brick dust and ozone in his mouth, ordered the other platoons to move up into supporting positions.  The quicker this last ‘something of nothing’ ambush was dealt with and the building cleared, the sooner the whole Eeen could move into its ‘rest’ position.

As this was unfolding, the rebels in the hidden bunkers all around the company positions were training their weapons on the 4^th Llar Heavies.  The assault platoon were largely out of cover, the others were moving up and into cover.  The rebels had prepared well, anticipating the invaders taking the bait, their fire positions were behind the cover available to the invader: these were positions where the hard cover was behind the ambushed Llar, corralling them into the ambush killing zone.  

There was a storm of heavy stubber and bolter fire, accomanied by a large volume of las and auto gun fire.  The rebel ambush killed and critically wounded most of the left hand company.  From the 3rd Eeen's centre company, there were only a handful of men unwounded and they were pinned.

Shifu Delf and his command team suddenly came alive.  The fight was back on and the surge of adrenalin brought the situation back into sharp focus, as his contact report was sent to his HQ, he was voxing the remaining company commanders – in the deepening gloom, where the deeply shaded roads and alley ways made street level night already. 

The first platoons into the area were also sucked into the killing zone by the cries of the wounded.  Others who tried outflanking the ambush site found their progress halted by mines and booby traps, some no more complex than falling masonry.  Walls fell on squads, rebel snipers pinned platoons whilst ambushers moved into alternate hidden positions and carried out their well drilled executions of segregated subunits. 

Shifu Delf was losing men fast, losing the battle.  Units were pinned and unable to advance.  The tactica imperialis was clear, losing men was acceptable if it achieved victory.  His men were tired, cut off from support, in the dark with a well hidden, well dug in aggressor.  He ordered up his anti-tank squads to return fire on the hidden bunkers with their missile launchers.  The few deployed mortar teams of the Eeen were brought into action.  The others were ordered to deploy.

The vox net did not die, but the open channels were suddenly swamped with static, fading in and out with nonsensical weather reports and light jazz music.  He could not see, could not hear and could not be heard.  Flares went up in the darkness and rebel sharp shooters in the building used the shine of the 4^th Llar Heavy’s wargear as aiming points in the gloom.  More men were being lost.

Shifu Delk ordered his command team to stay put and continue to try to raise RHQ and the rifle companies on the vox net.  He would venture alone into the darkness and direct survivors back to the command team’s location.  The rebels moved down their tunnels to where they had accurately predicted the invader’s mortar base plates would be, where the command teams might position themselves, where each companies reserve platoon might be. 

The 3^rd Eeen lost all but sixty two of its five hundred and eighty three officers and men that night; Shifu Delf, in his courageous action found forty of his men in the dark and sent them back, when he returned with what he thought were the last seven saved, the thirty three he’d already sent and the command team had been massacred in the dark, torn apart by overwhelming close range automatic fire.

By dawn the next day, Delf was the highest ranking officer left alive in the 4^th Llar Heavies.  With more casualties than capable soldiers, every Eeen was combat ineffective.   785 Div halted and recalled the survivors of 4^th Llar Heavies back to their start line.  3422 AG called on the firepower of the Imperial Navy.

They would be able to report contact with the enemy in regimental strength (how else could the outright defeat of a long established regiment of the glorious Imperial Guard be explained ?) which was resolved through overwhelming aerial bombardment. 

The outcome would be a much slower and more deliberate advance into the city.  Having had a whole, five Battalion, regiment of the Imperial Guard reduced to an understrength Battalion, 44 Corps would be more cautious in the future. 

2nd Regt Fire Support.

On the Brick of Scrutiny now are some more items assembled from the bounty from Devon.  These models are packed with character, but a bit of an arse; originally people used them just as stand alone models with the loader hanging around close by.

Whilst that's fine and I'd have no problem with anyone who brought something like that here to play, nonetheless, I think they'll be better on bases.  So these guys will go grey with blue helmets.

The original natty purple uniforms provoke a number of questions.

Here showing the spaces for the loaders.  This 25mm conduit is ever so slightly bigger than the stuff I previously used - I grabbed a few small bits from a job I was on in 2012, but doing this only uses ~3mm at a time, so using up the 10cm I've got is going to take some time.

And there's this guy as well, who unfortunately appears to have mislaid his 2ed Heavy Bolter.  Now, I seem to remember getting one through the post, but there's a chance that weapon might be on one of the other gun carriages already.

So I may pull out a plastic HB and cut it down to the right length and perhaps use a bolter magazine from a SM kit.  If I can hide the join where the shield is, so much the better.

2nd Ed Stormies

Really quite different from the Trumpet Scratchings or whatever they're called. 

These were in bits so I found bases (with circular cut outs for the loaders), and stuck 'em down.

So what they need now is a paint job to match the rest of the 2nd Ed Storm Trooper platoon.

So I've picked out the other models who could all be given the same treatment to add some strength to the unit.  Now, I get the impression that these were not previously completed as they did not fit the list that their previous Admiral ran.

But I can see a future for these guys, even if they go into a bitsa/remnants squad.

And a taster of the campaign's future:

More random dudes

These are Anvil Industries Unity Council Internal Security Troops.  These were on a special offer (sigh - suckered in a again !) as these were six man squads with one torso missing. The spare legs went to the 4th Llar Heavy Infantry. 

Hopefully from the fots you can discern crisp, clean castings.

My idea had been to use the figures with fallen legionnaire heads; ie more blood pact.  But these are two piece castings with integral heads so that went out of the window.  But they'll be great for Inq28 as someone's Internal Security Forces - the lack of web kit, short range, high volume of fire weapons and intimidating outfits kinda mean these bozos won't be going to plumbing school; they've made their choice.

So I'm planning on dark brown with white (or yellow, or realllllly pale green) helmets with mirrored visors.

Oh look, someone's carrying more ammo.

Deathwatch Kill team

OK, so on the Brick of Scrutiny now are the Deathwatch Kill team figures.  They're here so we can talk about painting. 

Red.  Blarrgh !  I know a lot of people grumble about painting red.  Here are some red ones.

Ultrasmurfs.

Now the green team.

There he is, looking for Alpharius within the ranks of the deathwatch.

Lighter colours.  Yellow.

Metal.

More yellow, he actually looks slightly better from the back.

Hell's Spangle.  I was feeling quite pleased with my progress here and thought to myself "I'll look at Karitas' Whitescar biker as a point of reference."  I won't do that again.

And my fluffy ffaves, the grey team.

So what you're looking at here are ten unfinished Space Marine figures.  I get so far, and then run into the law of diminishing returns.  By the time I get them to this stage, I've burnt through my mojo.  One of the reasons they are in their Chapter colours with black arms is that the variety of colourschemes are what maintains interest.

But I get 'em to here and then the steps required to finish them seem just beyond reach.  Picking out those final levels of detail is something I tend not do.  Long time readers may remember me talking about not enjoying painting (hence contracting it out), having neither the time nor inclination to practice in order to get to a level I'm happy with.

Now let's avoid a load of bollox where we blow smoke up someone's arse about their minis deserving a better paintjob than the one I'm currently putting out.  Two girls of primary school age eat money.  I need to improve my painting because contracting out painting is expensive.  There are a certain bits out there which I'm still getting help with, but I need to improve my painting to a point where these guys can look finished.

One thing which will need to improve is paint discipline - applying it where I want it, currently it goes a little bit further which means touching up.  Sometimes the touching up goes too far and needs touching up.  Better paint discipline in the first place would be a good start - go back up the picts and look at where the lenses are.  see ?

But I have a plan.

4th Llar Heavy Infantry.

These men are from the 5/4 Llar Hvy Inf.  Assigned to 785 Div, 44 Corps, 3422 Army Group.  More about these poor unfortunates in the future.  Sometime. 

These guys on the Brick of Scrutiny are FW heads on Curious Construct Hussar bodies on Anvil Industries legs with FW (DKK) arms.

These guys are going to field grey (that's blue to you, Drax) with red sashes and shiney silver buttons and shoulder guards.  I might do a couple with shiney silvered Adiran type helmets as well, or maybe lifeguard ones from Curious Constructs.

The story will involve the first four battalions being committed to a night attack, wearing their very shiney kit.  But you'll have to wait.

Obviously what I'm aiming for here is 'different, but not too different; still fitting in with the overall vibe of the army'.  Hopefully they'll be fine.

And on a different tac, but still from a wargaming blog, weirdly funny bad taste.