Back from vacation in time for the Raging Heroes Kickstarter!

I admit it... I'm a Raging Heroes addict!  

Anyone who has peeked at this blog has seen it.  They crept into my Dark Eldar army and ran amok.  Now they will be the central figure assortment for the upcoming Heresy Suppression Force (HSF).  I think there will be a place for all three factions.  I'm most exited about the idea of 150 unique figures before recombining all the options and upgrades.

I've always envisioned the HSF as a mostly, or entirely, female force.  Initially as a fleshing out of the Frateris Militia component of the Sisters of Battle.  I've always had a little trouble with sneaking the Frateris Militia in as a work around to the "No men under arms" limitation of the Ecclesiarchy.  I Imagine its an even greater difficulty for the more zealous Sisters of the Order.  Now I will have a great option for exploring this area.

The HSF plan envisions using Jailbirds for the Frateris Militia, Iron Empire for Adeptus Mechanicus support, and  the Kurganova Shock Troopers for Inquisition Regulars. 

In concept this build is largely an occupation/police action force intended to deal with insurgents, mutant suppression, bandits and Alien infestations.  Really more of a heavy police force than a regular battle formation.  It will be used primarily for GM'd and Narrative campaign style games.  It will also be used in some SF role-playing.

I've been working on the particulars for quite a while and some of you may recall the Sisters of Battle fortress monastery that I worked on a while back.  I'll want to expand the terrain collection further in support as well as finishing up the Monastery itself. 

I've been on holiday for about three weeks traveling around Japan and had become afraid that I'd miss the launch of the Raging Heroes Kickstarter!  I'm home at last and expect to be wielding the paintbrush again by Wednesday!  Zoom Zoom!

Bigger than it looks!

 This tiny Sisters of Battle Shrine marks the first actual miniature I've painted for the army. To the right you can get a sense of scale... if you look closely you can see the Shrine sitting on top of a box that is filled to bursting with its companions; a collection that has been growing ever since the first miniatures for this army were released.  It will be my UAF (Urban Assault Force) and should be a lot of fun to finally start painting.

This is not an army designed for competitive play.  Oh I'm sure it'll do OK... but its really a fluff army that will usually play in campaigns and other fluff driven environments.  As such the UAF will  be free to include a lot of unusual stuff like a "Sanctioned Unstable Psyker Evaluation Relocation Containment and Transport ", or SUPERCaT, for psychic prisoner transport (Gotta get 'em to the Black Ship somehow!).  SUPERCaT is not actually a combat vehicle but might have combat applications... and should be great scenario fodder.

The first step is to take a full inventory so I can make  some basic decisions like basing scheme and fill in any gaps in needed models.  The shrine is attached to its current base via magnet so I will be able to use it in the Fortress or on the field and can swap the base out for the actual army base theme.

As usual this project will be interspersed with a variety of other work so there will still be Dark Eldar, Orks, and hordes of other stuff showing up along the way.

Some of you will remember the work I did a while back on the Fortress.  Its come a long way since this shot but is currently boxed.  Its about 50% complete.  The bases are cut and most of the interior appointments are painted and awaiting installation.  That'll be another job for the horde of magnets  so I can make the beastie more portable.

This project will include a large amount of non GW details... like the wonderful decorative plates from Scibor, interior details from Atenocities Workshop, and bases from Dragon Forge Designs.

While the fortress itself is conceived of as a Sisters of Battle facility  I'm going to make the Sister specific details cover-able/replaceable with Adeptus Arbites themes so I can use it as a fortified precinct house when the Sisters are out and about.

Of course there is an evil place that all of this leads... the Adversary Force!  That is still a ways down the road but the groundwork is being laid for PDF gone bad...

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

Sister's Fortress

The work proceeds rapidly on the new home for the Order of the Ebon Chalice on Avalon. The fortress bases were cut and many of the interior details constructed. So far the weapons lockers, the situation table, air defense, bombardment guns, telephone booths, and the second level personnel door are completed. I'm really Impressed by the Governance of Technology scenery that Atenocity puts out. It is simply amazing stuff. Some examples! The telephone booths are off the hook! Here a Thousand Sons Chaos Marine phones home....




and the situation table....

Geekfest 2010 was a roaring success from a couple of standpoints. We got a ton of stuff done in terms of constructing and painting the scenery. To include two complete Mechanicum style ruins, an industrial refinery, and a three tank volatile liquid storage facility. The modular base sets for the Fortress were also cut and routed. Work got done as well on a Tzeentch themed Chaos Marine army and some Imperial Guard Ogryns got some uniforms.

Beyond the frenzied painting and modeling we also managed to complete a 6 game mini-campaign that included 2 apocalypse style battles. The battles were colorful and all had great impact on the play of following games. This Campaign was again set on Corpulous Prime and follows the Battles for the Pious Heart/ The Heart of Woe that were played out at Geekfest 2009. More details on the Chaos Gate Campaign next post. The next installment is in the planning stages with the working title "Escape From Corpulous Prime"

Sisters' Fortress AA defense

Azdrubael Vect is completed for the moment. I elected to swipe the Incubi Guards for other duties and may replace them with regular Incubi at a later date. For the moment leaving the Incubi off the model makes it a lot easier to handle and move around the table. I have not yet decided if it looks unbalanced without the Incubi. Work on the Sisters' Fortress continues apace. I worked on the AA defense turret and the Holographic Command Table for the CIC. I initially did the table in a typical dark Gothic antique metal finish but am now thinking that it looks too dirty in comparison to the weapons etc. I had thought that the technology would be dirtier and more weathered due to its aura of mystery and the low availability of techs to interact with it. I'm still turning this over and may decide to clean it up more and color it in the Order's livery though, for the moment I'm treating it as property of the Mechanicum... and neglected property at that.

I'm still chewing over names for the Fortress as well. Preferably something that is sort or acronyms into something short for ease of reference and makes sense within the Fluff of the Order of the Ebon Chalice. Like Rock of the Cup (RoC) etc... Probably avoiding Rock just because its been used a lot in other high profile stuff. I'd love some suggestions!

Juggers Assemble

Lots of stuff today. After smoothing out the claws a bit I got the Juggernauts assembled. Work on the bases proceeds and I'm starting on the riders. Having long ago cannibalized the riders for these guys I'm going to chop up some of the new plastic Bloodletters to use in their stead. Clean up on those starts today.

The Sisters of Battle Fortress got some additions with three of the interior floors installed. There is one more large floor to go and then an insert for the ground level. That will make five usable levels. I'll need two ground level floors. One to match the cut away for storage and display and one to expand and mark the footprint of the spire so the thing can be used in more tabletop settings.

I finished the repair/update on the mystery dragon... for the moment. I think I may go back and detail the eyes when I'm doing the gems etc for Azdrubal Vect. Azdrubal got the basic flash and mold line clean up and is ready for the wash, dry, and prime.

Sisters Decided!

I finally decided on the Order of the Ebon Chalice for my sisters. I really like the color scheme and what background I've been able to locate. I started laying in the roughs for the large floor heraldry inside the fortress and cut some component stencils for the larger elements. On the Bloodcrusher front; the base coats of the Juggernauts' metallic areas is underway and the brass and bone areas are getting their initial coats. Nothing terribly fancy but long and tedious. Picture with the next update.

Juggers again

Got more work done on the Juggers. Most of the deep symbols are painted in using reds and oranges over the red back drop and then applying several layers of red glaze to bury the symbols. Trimming started for the gold/brass and steel areas. I've got to start prepping the riders. I don't seem to have the original riders for this set of figures so I'll be converting some of the new Bloodletters for the role. This will allow me to field the unit in 40k or FB and I'll be basing them on square bases to aid with the crossover.

The mystery dragon got some attention as well and most of the base coats have been applied. It's probably been 20 years since I last did anything on this piece and it shows.

Planning .... I need to get serious about the floors of the fortress and address the interior walls. I'll clean and prep Azdrubal Vect at the same time I work on the Bloodletter riders. That should position me to work on some Tyranid monsters. Once I'm back in the swing of monsters I'll consider working on the Gargantuan Squiggoth. If I'm still a bit hesitant to take on the Squiggoth I'll probably do a Battlewagon to get in the proper ork mood.

Sisters Fortress

My long term Sisters of Battle project is being developed sort of backwardly. I've been working on a fortress for the order in the hopes it will inspire me to finalize a background and color scheme.

The fortress is based on a Guns of Navaronne Playset I got for Christmas in the early 70s. I'm really please to bring this venerable set out of storage and give it some new life.

I've added some Sisters Icons to the upper bunker and have done the basic weathering of the structure. The floors have been painted to old oily concrete and I'm working larger Icons into the floor. With five available floors there is a lot of possibility! I'll include both standard Fleur de lys and a symbol specific to the order (once I firm that up!) With the elevator and main guns I've also added some icons and seem to have done a fair bit of picking out detail in red and white. Given those small directions its time to return to the fluff to sort the identity crisis. I'm building the background for the order based on an urban warfare/police action concept that should include several specialist light vehicles that will have to be converted up as well.