They know what you're thinking

The next unit on the modelling table is a psyker battle squad. I have decided they need to stand out from the rank and file of the army, so they are going to have a colour scheme all their own. As a unit that's perceived as dangerous to the troops souls, they are required by regimental edict to wear black and yellow; unit and transport will certainly stand out that way!

I'm building them from Brettonian bodies; what I am finding is that I have a lack of laspistols. I'm looking around for a manufacturer who does replacement arms, but so far I only have four built; more to follow.

The left hand pair have arms from the Cadian infantry, the third has a Space Wolf chainsword and a scroll from the Flagellent set, the last figure has a flagellent's mace and a holstered pistol. The heads are from the flagellents as well, to give a more unkempt appearance.

Painting update - IG heavies

A heavy painting session last night (thanks to my wife for putting up with it!) has given me a new turret for the Ragnarok and four autocannon teams for Echo company, yellow platoon.

One Blight Wheel war-bot in each squad as the heavy weapon team - mounted on 60mm bases, though they only really need 40mm bases for the size of the robot.

Another turret - KV2, styrene barrel made from three diameters of tube.

Two Ragnaroks and the robots...

Heavy weapon madness

I have another game of 40k on Monday, and I am hoping to try out the allies rules - an Imperial Guard list with chaos marine allies. What I have discovered is that I don't have enough heavy weapon stands. A search through the boxes in the loft has unearthed a stash of Blight Wheel robots that I am going to use as autocannon teams - two with their conversion kit, two with plastic autocannon mounted on their shoulders.

I've also made another couple of mortar teams from the Wargames Factory set, and another KV2 turret to give me a second Leman Russ Battle Tank proxy. Hopefully I can get paint onto these for Monday.

More Dr Who converting

Work on the Dr Who's enemies army (counts as Necrons) is going on - this is the first in a unit of Cyberman assassins...

A small hole drilled either side of the head with a carefully bent wire threaded round, a tiny blob of greenstuff, a teardrop on each cheek. Simple stuff. The first head took about 45 minutes to get the wire bent to the right lengths; after that, about 10 minutes a piece.

Playing Gruntz

Last night we played Gruntz in 28mm, with a mix of toys; I was using Wargames Factory and Games Workshop troops, 1/48 scale KV2 tanks and an Iron Man toy as a mecha; Alan used GW troops, Old Crow vehicles and GZG skimmers and wheeled guns.

Playing the Assault and Battery scenario with three objectives; as defender, I get half my units on the board. 

Gruntz squad, commander, heavy tank and a lascannon specialist defending the right hand objective. 

Skimmer specialists with rockets coming round the woods. 

Alan's troops prepare for an assault on the left hand objective. 

Gruntz squad and the tank have been shredded, but Iron Man is there to save the day.

A sighting from his shoulder.

We played much better in this, our second game. Less confusion over the shooting, and I had found two sets of eight pairs of different coloured dice so we could shoot a whole squad in one action. We still have some trouble with the weapons (there's no multi-shot 'heavy bolter/assault cannon' equivalent), but the area effect weapons make a decent proxy.

At the end of the day, we have arranged to play again in a couple of weeks, so that must show that the rules are good.

I.. am... Iron... Man...

Alan and I are going to give the Gruntz rules a try out using our 28mm collections. I was putting together a 300 point list when I realised that what I was creating was just a 40k Imperial Guard list. So I dug out an old IronMan toy and stuck him to a base. I will come back to it, but at the moment it's just a big mecha - I will replace the right arm with a cannon.

Sentinels from GW (the pink one has been paint stripped - somehow the red paint has stained the plastic underneath; figures from Wargames Factory.