Nick's News! On the Table - Assault Marines

Warhammer: 40,000

The fifth company was short of an assault squad and so thanks to eBay I bought two five man squads. Again, like the rhino/razorback purchases I bid on Ultramarine models to reduce painting time.

Both squads must have been Vanguard Veterans in their former employ. I needed to raid the bits box to make a legal ten man assault squad. Fortunately arms with bolt pistols and chainswords are always going spare......

Apart from giving the bases a bit of paint to tone down the effect of the sandy gravel they are just about 'battle ready'. I decided that rather than re-base the five who were on sandy gravel I would add sandy gravel to the other five.......

The texture is more course than the one I usually use but hopefully as it is a single squad it will blend in to the rest of the models once a similar paint job is applied......

Nick's News! Quick Battle Report - X Wing

X-Wing

Last week's game between Andy Thornway and I saw a win for my Rebels.

There was a bit of a scrap for the centre of the board.

His Decimator soaked up a lot of damage, as usual.

Andy's Decimator damage cards show it to be full of holes!

The Z-95 and the Y-Wing mop up the remaining ships!

Andy is going to tweak his list for this weeks game. I'm going to run the same.

Nick's News! Showcase - Fifth Edition

Warhammer: 40,000

When I realised that sixth edition was on its way and I had no more battle companies to use I had two choices. 1) begin a whole new chapter 2) keep the chapter growing.
I chose option number 2 and decided that new miniatures would all be part of or attached to the expanding fifth company of the Eagle Marines.

The Dark Vengeance box set miniatures were all incorporated into the company and it happened that the wings depicted on the Dark Angels models could quite easily be Eagle's Wings and so no converting was necessary and I even bought Dark Angel specific models to keep the theme running.
All too soon the Seventh Edition was announced..........

The fifth company is now huge, and not yet photographed with the seventh edition codex - it will be coming soon!

Nick's News! Showcase

Warhammer: 40,000

The fifth edition was when I decided to separate out my collection into battle companies with each company being the corresponding edition. (except of course for the Rogue Trader era Seventh Company). As I came back to the hobby late into fifth edition I had the Assault on Black Reach set along with a couple of other NIB sets and like the fourth edition stuff and these have now been assembled and basecoated. The rhino and land raider I'd had since late third edition but I felt that the fifth company was where they belonged.

Of course, as soon as I had finished dividing my collection the announcement that sixth edition was on its way came......and I had run out of battle companies to use!

Nick's News! Showcase

Warhammer: 40,000

The fourth edition was the time when I was out of the hobby. I had picked up the codex and one or two models that caught my eye in the pages of White Dwarf but they were NIB in a cupboard for years before they were assembled and basecoated.

There are a couple of squads which form a part of the Fourth Company which I had assembled and painted at the tail end of my playing days. The devastators have metal weapons and are a bit top heavy. I might give them 30mm bases at some point.......

Nick's News! Showcase

Warhammer 40,000

The third company of my Eagle Marines Chapter still requires some of the models to be touched up from their days as 'Eagle Warriors'

It was the third addition codex which introduced the force organisation chart and all plastic miniatures were introduced. Most of these models are easy-assemble plastic models from the time. The terminators are mostly my own from the second edition Space Hulk box plus five more I picked up of ebay more recently.
The characters in terminator armour are metal and were originally on 25mm round bases but as there were too 'top heavy' they were re-based to the 40mm bases when they became the standard. However, now there is the 30mm base available they may get re-based one more time so they fit better into the late 1990s era of the force.........

Nick's News! Showcase

Warhammer 40,000

After I had re-organised my collection into different companies which corresponded with the different editions my second company turned out as follows:

All of these miniatures date from the the early 1990s and are either metal or metal/plastic hybrids.
Again, many of these models have been painted more than once.

Nick's News! Showcase

Warhammer 40,000

I thought it was time to post some pics of my WH40K collection. Starting with Space Marines.

The oldest miniatures are of course the 'womble noses' or 'beakies'

Most of the Rogue Trader era miniatures have been in my collection for some time and some have several coats of paint on them!

The reasons will be explained in more detail on my WH40K page but for now I am showing the:

7th Company, Eagle Marines in all their glory *ahem

Nick's News! Quick Battle Report

Bolt Action

Last Friday I played my second game of Bolt Action against Rob. As an introductory game we were able to learn that we got some rules wrong in the first game (artillery bombardment is not as devastating) and this time we learnt that assault is quite devastating!

The table looked a lot better this time as we were able to get a better table at the club.

Although we has laid out on a 6x4 table most of the action was in the middle of the battlefield.

Fortune favours the brave as my Sherman moved in on the Panther.

A lucky shot destroyed the Panther - however, we later realised that this was a bit too generous as we forgot that Panthers have 'extra front armour' - immobilised was probably the correct damage result.

All in all a great game. It will be a couple of weeks before I can play again, so in the meantime I have been reading up on the 101st Airborne Division and I have decided which specific unit my platoon will represent. Further update to follow.......

Nick's News! On the Table - Rhinos

Warhammer: 40,000

Free Transports! When I learned that my Eagle Marines could potentially be riding around in transports at zero points cost I thought 'excellent' - however, I only had a single rhino and a single drop pod in my 5th Company collection (7th Company is sorted, but I will need to post about them another time). After placing some winning bids on eBay and thanks to the Strike Force set I bought, I now have six rhino/razorback vehicles and two drop pods.

I decided to only bid on 'blue' vehicles to make painting them up easier but they arrived all shades of the Ultramarine spectrum!

Not too worry though. A bit of shading and dry brushing and they will blend together better.

A bigger headache is trying to achieve a point where each can be employed as either/or rhino/razorback. Even after raiding the bits box I am a few components short............

Nick's News!

Bolt Action & Flames of War

For both systems my US forces are based around a detachment of the US 101st Airborne Division known as the "Screaming Eagles"

I have just returned from a trip to Bayeux in Normandy and apart from visiting the Tapestry I was able to make time to visit three of the D-day museums and spend a day at Omaha Beach.

Was it odd building sandcastles with my kids on a landing beach? Maybe a little, but it was an unforgettable experience.

Of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to pick up some souvenirs:

I may feel a bit like when Joey in Friends pretended he owned a Porsche and decided to kit himself out from head to toe in Porsche stuff the next time I go to the games club - but I think that it will add to the 'immersing yourself in the experience' aspect..........