So I decided my Emperor’s Knuckles Space Marine army (Squats, AKA spess dorfs) needed another HQ choice to go with the terminators I made.  My original plan was to get another 2nd edition plastic terminator sergeant and bling it out to make a captain, but then I came across this fellow:

This is a 1st edition Space Hulk Terminator Librarian from the Genestealer expansion.  Being plastic was a plus, as converting it was a breeze.  I didn’t even really need to shorten the legs by that much since the model is a fair bit smaller than the current terminator armored figs anyway.  The arms were another story, as they seemed to have been sculpted in a larger proportion than the legs, so I had to relocate them as well.  I got the dwarf parts from this guy:

Unfortunately, Finecast, despite being fragile when you drop it, is actually pretty hard to cut into if you want to do an extensive mod like this.  I ended up having to cut off the bits of the guy I wanted in larger chunks with a sprue cutter before whittling out what I could with a hobby knife and finally breaking out the dremel tool to get to the finer points.  Freeing up the beard from the pistol was a chore in itself.  I wanted to keep the geared hammer and replace the axe head of the force weapon as well as a few of the runic pouches, charms and random bits from the backpack.  Here’s how he came out.

And here he is with the terminator squad.  Due to librarians wearing blue armor and my characters having little red toboggans, he came out looking a bit reminiscent of Papa Smurf.

You can now play MDA with a fifth hero class, the Beastmaster.  Beastmasters are aided by their animal companions, the swift falcon, the nimble ferrets, the deadly wolf and the mighty bear.  Oh, and that’s a werewolf behind everyone.  Werewolves are one of the larger enemies in the Castle of Count Vludd quest, which should be ready shortly.

You can download the expansion pdf with all the extra rules and miniatures (minus the werewolf) here:

http://flipitpapercombat.com/downloads/MDAbeastmasterpage.pdf

I’ll take some better pictures later, but here’s the first of five terminator armor clad squats for my Emperor’s Knuckles space marine army.  I have a standard power armor squat and a Dark Vengeance terminator in the pic for scale reference.  The squat terminators are made from the second edition plastic terminators with the thigh from the legs chopped down and the shoulders dropped a bit.  A single power armor pauldron was used to close the faceplate.  While not being that much shorter overall than a standard terminator figure, they do make it seem as if the wearer wouldn’t be that tall due to the lowered arms and hidden face.

Are you into giant monster movies?  Are you into Board Games?  Are you into papercraft projects?  If you answered yes to at least two of these things then Smash Monster Rampage! might be worth your while to take a look at.  This is a print & play boardgame developed by Mike Swindall that brings the colossal monsters of classic films to the tabletop via the printer sitting on your very desk.

This game will be reviewed in-depth along with Phantom Capsule for my upcoming article in Games Magazine, so be sure to pick up a copy when it hits.

http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/

Visit the website for this great gaming project at

http://www.smashmonsterboardgame.com/

I thought I would be done with this template by now, but parts are getting very difficult.  The vanes on the front fins went through several revisions (mainly the little humps they connect to) before I found one that had a good balance between simplicity and looking the part.  Now the weapons for the upper turret, the underside weapons and antennae and the undercarriage detail are giving me hell.  I also have to take breaks on this to finish my articles and build various print & play games to review, so its going to be another week or two before this thing is finalized.

The paper version is on the right in both pics.  The model in the left is a plastic kit I assembled and painted that I’m using for reference.

Slowly working my way through painting 23 ork grots/gretchin/snotlings/runtz/whydotheyhavesomanydifferentnames.  I don’t even play orks or plan on using them as allies ever, so I’ll probably sell them once I’m done.  Thinking about auctioning them off for charity.  I usually do something for Toys for Tots every year, so I’ll probably donate the proceeds to that.  Heh, “Grots for Tots”, anyone?

Anyway, this little guy is mostly right off the sprue from the kit, minus the extra bits from the base.  I drilled out the barrel of the big pistol and swapped out the whackin’ stick for the pointing hand.  The base is covered with various grenades, a promethium tank, a small bomb and a meltabomb on a timer currently at  0:03.  The gretchin is pointing at his wonderful find of ‘splodey ‘tings and calling out for his buddies to come look.  I like making scenes that tell a story.

I do need to get a better camera for macro shots (between papercrafting and gaming its about all I shoot).  This was hell to get a steady shot from a borrowed Sanyo X1400.  I’m thinking of picking up a Cannon Elph.

I took some leftover space marine bits and a plastic ork gretchin miniature and kitbashed them together to make this guy.  The head had the rounded part of the neck filed flat and the back section drilled out to fit the grethin’s neck.  Two holes were drilled in the sides and I carved the ears off of one of the plastic gretchin heads and glued them in.  The chainsword had the middle section removed and was drilled and pinned together to replace the metal pipe the grethin was holding.  The space marine bolt pistol was an easy swap since I just had to remove the big pistol upper half and could keep the same hand and handle.  The backpack was a pain since I has to cut off the lower two exhaust ports, chop out the middle and fuse the left half to the right side.  A little bit of sanding and a lot of liquid greenstuff helped.  I drilled a hole in the underside of the pack as well as on the gretchin so I could mount it on his back.  I added the frag grenade to his belt and modified his feet to fit the sloped terrain I made for the base.  This little guy is now my favorite kitbashed miniature I’ve made.

The Purplecrons now have a MONOLITH.  Well, sort of.  It’s paper.  Twelve sheets, to be exact.  Three more and I could have built a ‘friggin Thunderhawk.  So many sub-assemblies and layers.  Took quite a bit of ink to print out the swatches to match the paint colors too.

Closeup of all dem deathmarks.  I first tried out the color scheme for the army on one of them, and it sold me on it.

The plain Necron lord with Rez orb was an interesting piece to build.  I never do seem to get any good photos of the sculpting work on the cloak.

a shot showing the regular necron warriors.  Painting 32 of these guys was an effort.  8 points of white, 18 points of silver, 7 points of green, 2 shade washes and 2 spots of black were applied to each figure.

The auction is still up on ebay right now.  Please feel free to bid on it.

I’ve had these finished for a while now, but broke them out last night for some photos.  T-Pain (Short for Talos Pain Engine) works amazingly well with my allied Wraithlord.  Larry here usually bites the dust after he and his wracks burninate a squad, but Anthanaz and T-Pain are amazing in 6th ed.  Need a bastion smashed?  Warlord wrecked?  Dominate a daemon prince?  They’re up for it.

To help cover the cost of rebuilding and replacing things from the fire, I’m selling my Necron army I’ve been painting for the past few months.  It’s up on ebay now at the following link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-painted-Necron-army-Warhammer-40k-/320981244734?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4abbf91b3e#ht_500wt_1414

There’s more pictures on the ebay page.  The auction is for 2 night/doom scythe fleyers, 2 Catacomb/Annihilation Barges, a Necron Overlord, a Necron Lord with custom sculpted cape, Two Finecast Cryteks, 9 Deathmark snipers, 32 Necron Warriors and the new Codex: Necrons.  I’ve got over $300 and thirty hours put into the project, and while I did enjoy building and painting it, I’m hoping to get a bit money out of it.

I’ll try and swap out the pictures tonight with some more recent ones.  The bases have all been covered with black sand drybrushed in dark grey to look like ashes with a few skulls and bones scattered among the many bases.  One of the barges pictured here is not finished in the picture, but it has since been completed.  All the vehicles are magnetized to accept either vehicle option.  The auction included additional paints and boxes to carry the figures and vehicles.