Something a little different to set the scene for the new year.

I do hope some of you saw the My Little Pony spaze murheens.

So these are DKK torsos on VL Victorian legs.  Some of the arms are DKK and some are VL.  A lot of the pre-loved DKK rifles are broken at the worst possible point, but I have some ideas of how to deal with that.

Not all of these figures are 'dressed' yet to hide the join, but these two give a good idea - there's a mix of DKK and VL bits.

Junior Officer in the same idiom.  One DKK arm and one VL one.

Thats 'im again.  What a poser.

I've toyed with a couple of schemes, but am learning towards the Blue Krieg scheme with a red stripe down their trousers - representing the same regiment but wearing their summer jackets instead of their winter greatcoats.  Again, moving the fluff forwards.  As Col Hertford reminds us, one more stone turned in the search for hobby perfection.

Not the usual end of year round up.

No, this is more of a stock take.  Following the little video in the summer, I offer this (principally for Dai) - It doesn't include any of the more recent offerings from the brick of scrutiny, some will end up in here, but others won't. It also does not include that entire Army from Devon, either.   Apologies for the wonky lines, it's just the way blogger has imported the Word documents.  Make of it what you will:

Zzzzz’s Death Korps of Krieg Army

Assault Brigade

HQ                                          Marshall Venner & Chimera

HQ                                          Coy Command Section & Chimera

Elite                                       Engineer Squad with Cyclops and Chimera

Elite                                       3x Hydrae

Elite                                       3x Hydrae

Troops                                  PCS, five rifle squads & Chimerae

Troops                                  PCS, five rifle squads & Chimerae

Troops                                  Grenadier PCS, five Grenadier squads & Chimerae

Fast Attack                          2x Salamander

Fast Attack                          2x Salamander

Fast Attack                          3x Hellhounds

Fast Attack                          Waffenritter PCS, three ten rider squads

Heavy Support                  2x Thunderbolt

Heavy Support                  3x Thunderer

Allies: DKK Armoured Battlegroup

HQ                                          Coy Command Tank LR pkw

Elite                                       Forward Observer’s LR Executioner LR pkw

Elite                                       Commissarial LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  PCS, six rifle squads

Troops                                  PCS, six rifle squads

Heavy Support                  Heavy Weapons Platoon, 9 Las cannons, 9 Auto Cannon

Heavy Support                  Field Artillery Platoon  3 heavy mortars, 3 quad launchers

 Armageddon Steel Legion (Armoured Battle Group)

HQ                                          CCS Col Cdt Welbahnn (Gen Odon) in Crassus

HQ                                          Stormsword

 HQ                                         Coy Command Tank LR pkw

Elite                                       Forward Observer’s LR Executioner LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  3x LR pkw

Troops                                  PCS, Fire Support squad, Anti-Tank squad Chimerae

Troops                                  PCS, Fire Support squad, Anti-Tank squad Chimerae

Fast Attack                          3x armoured sentinels

Fast Attack                          3x armoured sentinels

Fast Attack                          3x armoured sentinels

Fast Attack                          Wolverine armoured car

Allied detachment  Mordian 7^th Iron Guard

Fast Attack                           (motor cycle) Rough Riders
Troops                                  Armoured Fist PCS, 3 rifle squads, chimera

Heavy Support                     AT Squad, 3 ATGW, 3 laser cannon.

17 Korps HQ

HQ                                          Korps Commander (3* Gen Tolstoy) CCS, Chimera (AT-AT)

902 Div HQ

HQ                                          Cadian 24^th Liaison CCS, Taros

HQ                                          Cadian 127^th Liaison CCS, Taros

HQ                                          Palladian Guard Liaison CCS, Centaur

HQ                                          Elysian 141^st Liaison CCS, Chimera

Elite                                       DKK Grenadier Squad & Bastogne

6 Platoon Necromundan 1^st Death’s Head Regt

Troops                                  6 four man fire teams

11 Bn 157^th First Born Regt

HQ                                          5 PCS

Heavy Support                  AT Squad (3 laser cannon) FS Squad (3 Heavy Bolter)

Helgedad Sworn Bands

HQ                                          CCS

141^st Elysian DTR “Helljumpers”

HQ                          CCS

Elite                       Storm Trooper demi squad

Elite                       Storm Trooper demi squad

Troops                  PCS, 3 rifle squads w/ML

Troops                  PCS, 2 Drop Sentinels, 2 Taros, 1 Taros Venator

Dedicated           6 Valkyries

Fast Attack          4 Vendetta

Cadian 144^th Long Range Reconnaissance Regiment

Troops                  3 Taros (HALO Warthog)

Troops                  3 Wolverine Armoured Cars

Valhallan (Kado) 540^th Heavy Infantry

HQ                                          CCS (Chenkov)

Troops                                  PCS, five rifle squads

Troops                                  PCS, five rifle squads

Troops                                  PCS, five rifle squads

Corbanian 2^nd Infantry Regt

HQ                                          CCS (Straken)

HQ                                          CCS + Commissar

Troops                                  PCS + Commissar, five rifle squads, 2 SWS

Troops                                  PCS + Commissar, five rifle squads, 2 SWS

Elite                                       27 Kasarkin

Elite                                       10 Snipers

Elite                                       Veteran Squad w/Sgt Harker

Heavy Support                  Anti-tank squad (3 laser cannon), Fire support squad (2 AC 1 HB)

Heavy Support                  AAA Squad (SGT + 3 ML), AAA Squad (Sgt + 3 ML)

Knovian dismounted infantry (Geno 5-2)

Troops                                  PCS, two rifle squads

Troops                                  PCS, two rifle squads

Elite                                       5 Snipers

Heavy Support                  Fire support (5 Auto cannon)

42 Bn Helegdad Vnutrennye Voiska

Troops                          PCS, two rifle squads

Troops                          Penal Platoon

Hulin Rifles

Troops                          PCS, five rifle squads

Departmento Munitorium Delegation

HQ                                Lord Commissar

HQ                                Eight Commissars

Troops                          Factor, runner & Honour Guard

A Section, No2 Platoon, Psyker Coven 555

HQ                                Primaris Psyker

Troops                          PBS (7 plus minder)

Heavy Weapons

Heavy Support                  6 mortar base plates (unmanned)

Heavy Support                  6 laser cannon emplacements (unmanned)

Heavy Support                  2 auto cannon carriages, 4 laser cannon carriages (unmanned)

Fast Attack                          2 Hell Hounds

Ozark Mountain Daredevils (Combat Engineers)

HQ                                          CCS + Commissar, Chimera

Elite                                       Ogryn Brute Squad

Elite                                       Kasarkin Squad

Troops                                  PCS, four rifle squads

Troops                                  PCS, four rifle squads

Fast Attack                          3 armoured sentinels

Fast Attack                          Hell Hound

Heavy Support                  LR Demolisher

Heavy Support                  FS Detachment (3 auto cannons, 3 auto cannons)

Sarainian 5^th Geburgsjeagir

HQ                                          Von Creed, CCS + Commissar

Elite                                       Veteran Squad

Troops                                  PCS, three rifle squads, dog handlers

Troops                                  PCS, three rifle squads, dog handlers

Dedicated                           Six Keilerkopf APCs

Commando D-66

Troops                                  Kasarkin Squad

Troops                                  Kasarkin Squad

Helgedad Sworn Bands

HQ                                          CCS

Troops                                  PCS, two rifle squads

OOP Star Wars stuff in FLCS.

Ok, so being a little topical...

I drop into my Friendly (not really)Local Comic Shop whilst the small are trampolining* on a Saturday morning.

And if occurred to me that someone out there might be interested in some of the 'top shelf' stuff they have.  So at the risk of being branded NSFW, here it is:

So if this stuff piques your interest, let me know and I'll get you the vendor's details.  I was thinking that Slave 1 might be a good space ship for a heretical renegade Inquisitor.  But that would break my rules of acquisition.

* Spelt "Champolining" with no trace of irony by the small people. 

Macharian 203rd Line Infantry

So,  I have some fluff for these boys already, but it can wait until there's three-colours-minimum on them at least.  But here are some notes on construction.

The brick of scrutiny is a bit damp at this time of year - that patch of moss is bigger every time every time some little guys form a resin human pyramid and climb up for their photoshoot.

These guys are DKK legs, VL victorian torsos and arms and Puppetswars heads.  I've included a few shots to show how they are dressed about the middle - a variety of bits from FW, VL and Raging Heroines.

A couple of guys with FW packs from Devon

Some of the helmet rims were damaged during the conversation - annoyingly.  I do like the puppetswar lids.  But will be painted up as battle damage.  I think these guys will suit the worn look (?)

A decent illustration of the variety of kit carried.  I was sort of anticipating a formerly-uniform-but-now-having-more-cobbled-together sort of look for them.  I think the models do that, now to sort out a suitable paintjob.

The special weapon guy with the DKK melta gun.

The junior officer type.  There's sixteen of these so far, I'm only anticipating there being twenty of these in total, so the Jnr Offr may end up functionally being an NCO for list building purposes.  But if I do end up illustrating the conflict by showing the Macharian 203rd in a picture, then an officer waving on his troops would be appropriate.

Captain Pasquilliano looses a book, a cirlip and his bunk.

As 72AG were moving out of Fort Nuttar.

“I’ve lost my book.”

“What ?”

“I’ve lost my book.”  He clicked out the interlocks on the plasma pistol and slid the containment chamber out of the receiver.  Placing the chamber between his knees he tipped the remains of the weapon up to the light and squinted at the venturi inside the muzzle cowling.  His other hand fished about in his cleaning kit for a moment before pulling the Ryzatool.

“You look like a dork.” She snorted.  “You always look like a dork when you try to maintain that thing, your tongue sticks out the side of your mouth like a little boy and it always takes you twice as long as anyone else.”

She swigged the amsec out of the bottle, grimacing and making a face.  “What fefthing book ?”

The Cadian looked at her for a brief moment, purple eyes maintaining their plasma pistol cleaning squint.  “It was a swap with Colonel Has.  The one I gave him was a lot better written.  I need to find ‘Ethel the Pirate King’s Daughter’ to swap back again.”  There was a soft plink as the serclip holding the muzzle choke sphincter pinged out and disappeared somewhere under a table or pile of backpacks or ammunition boxes or, well wherever the heck it went.

“You’re fefthed now, Mr President.”  She put the lid on the bottle and swung back onto his bunk, tipping her commissarial cap down over her eyes.

The Cadian maintained concentration on his task in hand.  “Nah, I carry supply of those little critters.  Every last one I’ve ever caught has broken, cooked by the heat or something.”  The plasma pistol was now completely stripped down on the tiny table in his bunk.  Most of his kit was packed up, the HQ would likely be leaving Fort Nuttar tomorrow, some thirty six standard after the lead elements of 902 Division.  Now he needed to get a few hours downtime before HEY !

“What are doing on my bunk ?”

“Commissar Tora snores.”

“That’s really sad, it must be awful for you, but I’m gonna be getting in there in ten, I’m just going to the thunderbox first.”

“Have you got the shits ?”
“I beg your pardon, Commissar ?”

“You’ve never been that fast before Captain.  Besides, you need to find Colonel Has’ book before we move out.”  She settled down to be as conspicuously comfortable as possible. 

Dahedd

Hello Dahedd !  I've no idea if you still look in or not, but I've just gone back all those years and seen your questions.  Hopefully if you're still interested, you'll have watched this.

Additionally, I can offer you:

The Eldar vehicles

The majority of the IG vehicles

The closest thing to a complete family picture of the Iggies. And the Elysians

Really early picts of the Eldar.

And 'cause everyone likes picts of Iggies, I'll put these back up.

Anyway,  here's looking forward to a child free, fair weather weekend for a new parade in 2017.  With these boys front and centre:

Searching for a head. Or a graphic novel.

So, some of you, I know occasionally play computer games.  I'm hoping that there's some one out there who is a bit of a Killzone fanboy.

I don't do FPS, principally because I'm rubbish at it and can't get past the warm up thingy which most people skip at the beginning of a game.  So this stems from idle curiosity, not me ever having actually played the game or even knowing someone who owns a copy.  Anyway, I am interested in the Killzone/Helghast fluff; largely as a possible background for another IG unit.  Like you hadn't figured out already.

The problem trying to find a graphic novel about this franchise is that one of the games in the series has a feature where the Player Character spends his time collecting the pages of a torn up graphic novel during the game....

So googling Killzone and/or Helghast Graphic Novel doesn't actually bring up a graphic novel (if there is one) but pages and pages of stuff referencing the sequences in the game where the pages are collected and then millions of words about the meaning and content of the in-game comic.

So, Oh wise and mighty blogosphere, am I on a hiding to nothing ?  Is there a graphic novel or something out there that my feeble google-fu has been unable to find ?

And, just to bring this back to the table top, what about heads like this ?

There's VL heads which have the DKK like breathing tube vibe or there's the Pig Iron kolony militia heads which have a Vervunhive/Helghast vibe going on.  Hummm, I wonder....

Surprise scenery

So the Royal Mail, in cahoots with HMRC, sent me one of their wonderful anonymised demands - I paraphrase - "There's a parcel from Cadia  Canada, if you give us £30ish, you can have it."

Eventually, curiosity overcame my reluctance to spend money. 

Here's the box on the table.  Oh, its a kickstarter.

Ah, now I remember !

More MDF than I can eat.  This much laser cut MDF has a smell.  Not a nice smell like when you walk past a Teriyaki bar and then Cinnabon and then into a coffee shop, but not unpleasant either, it's just a smell which tells you get building.

Hummm.  Well, just in case this piqued your interest, this is what it should look like when built:

Armistice Day Post.

Interestingly, perhaps, No1 daughter has hit the age where her Brownie Troop/Pack are going to parade on Sunday.  I'll have to find my beret and polish my shoes.

Now, there has recently been another anniversary.  2000AD has reached Prog (issue) 2000.  There is a comic shop (nicely hidden up an alleyway) in Banbury who nicely managed to source me one of the reprint copies, the first edition having all sold years before the event one imagines. 

This is part of my childhood.  A part of GB plc for forty years etc.  I started at prog 3 and carried on through to when I hit my tenaged years and lost interest in everything except goofing about and not washing.  My mum (gawd bless 'er) used to read it as well.  She wouldn't really try to engage her grunting son but did offer on which Judge Dredd storylines she approved or disapproved of in some effort to influence the much younger Zzzzz.

She also bought me my first couple of White Dwarf subscriptions.  I remember being slightly disapointed that there wasn't some nod to WD40 in WD40, but then, one can't have everything.  I also remember some of my more politically aware friends having quite earnest conversations about the 'Democracy' Judge Dredd storyline.  But I'd moved on by then to Kerrang and the NME.

Now the older me doesn't really have the inclination to buy 2000AD every week, but I can be persuaded to pick up the anthologies of collected strips.   John Day over at Fallen Princes often gives pointers to things to look out for (as well as beer recommendations - what's not to like ?) - Slaine, Judge Dredd and Rouge Trooper already grace my bookshelves - when these are complete I may well for others - the temptation is to collect the ones which I remember with fondness (Bad Company, ABC Warriors etc) but there is bound to be more good stuff which has happened in the intervening 35 years which I'm not aware of, but might be worth picking up.  Now I'm 48, I just sort of hope that I've got enough time to do all the things I want to do before I fall off the perch.

Oh, and that 2000AD collection of Prog 3 through to Prog 274 ?  It got thrown away whilst I was in the army....

Re-purposed devourer cultists

So you guys know that my predilection is to built proper sized military formations.  Obviously this comes with the problems of expense, building and painting resources and finally storage.  And realistically, for a lot of units in the future, I only need a handful of minis to depict the idea of a contribution to the campaign.  So here are a few of minis in the sort of numbers I'm likely to use going forward.

Today on the brick of scrutiny are the 3rd and 4th generation cultists from the Overkill boxed set/game (does anyone really buy these and play the game therein ? - more than once, I mean).

So the heads are from the Militant Tortoises set, both the SWAT masks and the berets.  As they are, each of them is still decorated with a cult symbol.  I'll chop off the dangly ones and cover over the others with, appropriately enough, purity seals.

The mining derived suits will give these guys a backstory, two small squads of seven supported by a guy lugging around a grenade launcher - it's obviously heavy; these are real humans not the super indoctrinated Cadians and Catachans who fling around military hardware like it's made of plastic....

And the autoguns give them a distinct look.  The beret decorated dudes look pretty cool.  Until I start painting them.  Speaking of which, I'm thinking of militarising their suits, not having them in industrial yellow or orange. Which is going to mean, probably, a mid military green instead.

The few with claws can be explained away as mechanical bits.  After all, who doesn't want prosthetic claws ?  Ermmm.  I have some Eisenkarn hands, which will always look good on conversions.  So shaving the claws off and adding some applique fingers shouldn't be too hard...

The rest of the cult - I've decided that I really don't want another army.  So the 'stealers and other more gribbly bits are on their way south, even as I type this.  By the time this is posted, hopefully they'll be happily ensconced in their new home.

Blood Pact Reduex.

You may remember these.

Some more have been done, this time by Raven's Nest Painting.

So as Slovak asked for of these, here they are.  Etogaur there in the centre.  Blood Mage with the sword trailing blue flames.  And a Platoon Commander with a bloodthirster sword (power weapon) and the other Platoon Commander is behind the Blood Mage.

Those three at the back are death brigade types.

The family portrait.

The guy with the bolter is a sergeant.  The type with the shield will be one of the Etogaur's body guards.

Death Brigade bloke at the front.

Sentinels.  Original lead sentinels from the 1980s.  More treasure from Devon.

Death Riders.  These are Blight Wheel Terror Birds.

So, these will soon (c'mon Reaper !) be joined by a trio of Victoria Lamb sledgehammers.

Other things I plan on getting some Curious Construct mortars: heavy trench mortars and the multi-barrelled type.   So the Blood Pact can be run using the DKK Siege List.

So the sentinels will have to be an allied unit - but when I saw them, even as a pile of unpainted bits, I just knew that this would be their destiny !  Bwaa ha ha ha.

And If you're Mad Max/Fury Road fan, get a load of this.  I'm not too sure if it's genius, a labour of love or some as yet un-diagnosed mental illness. But it is art.

It's not in any Codex ! You can't do that !

Balderdash,

GW had a long history of codexing units it then didn't produce models for.  "Codexing"  - so totes a wurd.

I've built a squad of jump 'zerkers.

 Lined up on the Brick of Scrutiny: Anvil and GW bits.

So, then tossing some ideas around for actually painting them - here's my quandary:

1. Classic mostly bright red with metallic detailing (like other 'Zerkers)
2. Brass (a bit like Minotaurs) A sort of Khornate Elite [Sanguinary] Guard
3. Black with red crosses on their shoulders and legs

I'm thinking of a sort of Sanguinary Guard.  Once they're painted, they will be virtually indistinguishable from blood for the blood god angels anyway.  But I am open to other suggestions.  

Blood for the blood Emperor an' all that.

And because they're wearing jump packs, they can be artfully arranged like a flower.  It's not all blood and death then.  Oh, wait...

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...