The Devil Dogs Mercenary Company for hire!

The morning had started as a crisp, clear winters day, fresh white snow had fallen, but was now rent with furrows from Khadoran bombardments currently ranging in on their southern enemies.

"You there, Devil Dogs is it? Why are you not in position?" A Cygnaran journeyman cried as he ran up to the unit.

"Aye we're the Devil Dogs alreet" replied Bowdyn, casually whipping his chain-net back and forth as the others readied hand cannons and pick axes, "we're waiting on our boss to get back from your high-ups, then we'll move".

"Bloody Mercenaries" the journeyman sighed and marched further on.

"I think ve vill see action soon comrades, ze Khadoran singing is becoming louder" Andrei warned as he kept lookout towards the enemy.

A few moments later, Captain Sam MacHorne made her way along the line looking for her company.

"Boss, Boss, over here, what's the word?"

"Mornin' my lucky chums, word is that we'll be busy. A major push by those northern idiot's today, so's the word. No offence Andrei" she said, looking at her Khadoran gunner.

"Ah none taken kapitan".

They all ducked as they were showered with clumps of snow and dirt from a nearby explosion.

"We're to head towards hangman hill and see if we can do anything about this bombardment" McHorne said over the din.

"Yes" she continued, "I know this will be a hard slog, but if the coin is there..."

 "We do not care" the rest of the Devil Dogs shouted as one finishing the motto of the company.

***

A whistling shriek heralded another incoming artillery shell and the Devil Dogs ducked their heads as they sprinted through the slush. They were getting close to the Khador warjacks' now and the heat from the steam boilers had melted the dirty snow around.

Ash and smoke drifted lazily in the air from the machines and gunfire. The gunners ahead of MacHorne fired punching several winter guard off their feet.

"Bowdyn, net that destroyer, gunners cover, heavies do your thing, but try to save the cannon arm" she shouted, and the troops rushed to follow her orders.

Within moments Bowdyn and two others were hacking with their pickaxes at the stricken Warjack, its own huge axe pinned to the floor by the heavy chains Bowdyn had cast at it.

The gunners by this point were firing their heavy alchemical scatter shells at the second Destroyer keeping it stunned in a cloud of disorientating smoke.

"Stop right there Cyka, you vill die for zis insult to ze Motherland!" A Khadoran voice rang out as the enemy Warcaster charged MacHorne with his axe swinging.

She turned and parried, tried to shoot but his free hand battered her cannon away. He swung again trying to cut across her stomach, but with the slush underfoot she slipped and fell backwards loosing grip on her sword.

"Shit, ze boss, ve need to get to ze boss, she's in trouble" Andrei shouted seeing the situation unfolding.

The Khadoran loomed over her, axe raised high for a killing blow, when he was overtaken by smoke and thunder. When the smoke had cleared and MacHorne has shook the ringing from her ears she looked around to find that the unfortunate man had disintegrated from the waist up.

Turning to look their own Warjack which they had outpaced with their sprint had finally caught up with them just in time. Smoke still curled from the twin heavy cannons depositing soot across the dark green armour plating.

"Thank you Rusty" she said, using the affectionate nickname she had for it, before motioning it off to counter the second Destroyer which the heavies we're now heading towards.

'If the coin is there, we do not care' MacHorne mentally intoned to herself as she pulled herself up and recovered her weapons...

*****

Back to Warmachine for this next post and something a little different from my recent Cryxian gear.

This time I delved into the murky world of the Mercenaries and painted up the unit of Devil Dogs, accompanied by a salvaged Warjack.

In Warmachine terms these guys are an anti-Warjack unit. You hire them point them at the enemy Warjacks and let them do their thing.

Their leader, Captain Sam McHorne, took control over the company through a gambling game and reorganised them to fight against the newer Warjacks. After the previous leader has neglected to update their wargear and left them stuck facing off against infantry with no way to protect themselves from the steam robots attacking them.

To this end I chose to paint my unit in a uniform dark green with metallic armour, figuring that McHorne would have kitted them out not only with weapons, but uniforms as well.

Captain McHorne in the middle flanked by her two gunners.

The three "Heavies" which come in the box with their pickaxes and the chain-net for tying down Warjacks.

Lastly, their salvaged 'Jack.

This was a Cygnar light Warjack (I don't know the type), but someone had taken a Dremel of such to the top plate which was a metal add-on and not completely obliterated the Cygnar symbol there.

A little work with a needle file removed most of the rest of the symbol with what is left looking like a damaged salvaged plate.

Figuring that the Devil Dogs could always be looking for edges on the field, I attached this to them and painted it up in the same colours as the unit.

As this Warjack uses coal rather then Necrotite like the Cryxian ones, I took pains to weather the smokestacks for accumulated soot, as well as make the entire lower section dusty.

I can't see the mercenaries cleaning this thing too much, apart from for maintenance or maybe punishment duty.

For the Dragon Rampant rules for this unit, I am considering fielding them as a unit of Heavy Foot with the Mixed Weapons option from the Light Foot added to them for their guns.

I'd possibly add a second Light Warjack to the unit to justify the twelve wounds for the unit.

Six infantry at one would each and two light Warjacks at three wounds each.

This would make the unit itself cost Six points, that's about average for a unit in Dragon Rampant.

Hobby Bingo time and these complete another "Unit of 2+ models" box and add another ten points.

This brings my new total up to Seven Hundred and Ten points now.

Until next time...

Deathwatch Killteam Marius.

 

"That's three now Trajod, three! And that last one was as big as a Razortusk I tell you" Bjan shouted as he wrenched his knife from the broken skull of the Ork at his feet.

"Good for you, Son of Russ, I'm already on five. Your berserker tendencies wound and maim but don't dispatch. Thunderfist, you should clear your head before fighting" Trajod replied stoically, he raised his power sword and wiped the filth from the blade with a cloth torn from a dead greenskin.

"Pah! And fight as soulless as you and your brethren Iron Knight? You should learn to enjoy the rush of combat, the murder-time, the spray of blood!"

Around the pair of Deathwatch Astartes, the ground slowly flooded with blood from the score of dismembered Orks recently slain.

Trajod was about to retort...

"Enough! Bjan, Trajod, move towards the next ridge, we will follow in covering formation. The next time I hear your two bickering, you will be on punishment detail until I deem you worthy of the Long Vigil" Veteran Sergeant Marius' voice was stern.

Bjan grinned at the silent helm of Trajod and set off sprinting with a spray of gravel as he turned. The Iron Knight set off in support of his squad mate.

"Sergeant, I do believe that you will have to follow up on that threat with those two" Brother Tiguras voxed to his Sergeant.

"You may be right"

***

Bjan whirled his knife and nearly tore an Orks arm off at the shoulder, he howled and struck again severing the limb with a welter of blood.

Trajod slammed back to back with the raging marine, whirling his sword in a figure of eight to create some space.

They had been mobbed by Orks as they crested the ridge and had fought constantly since. A trail of bodies littered the ground marking their passing.

"Eighteen now Thunderfist"

"Hah! Nineteen"

Another wave of Greenskins charged towards them and they readied themselves for another fight.

"Brothers, go to ground!" Sergeant Marius voxed.

Both marines dropped to the ground as Bolt shells ripped overhead. The front ranks of the charging Orks disintegrated as the shells blew them apart. 

Marius, Tiguras and Darnom, the other three members of the Killteam advanced methodically up the hill, disciplined fire erupting from their Bolt Rifles, each round finding a home in an alien body.

The fight seemed to go out of the Orks in that moment and the survivors turned and ran down the hill shouting.

"Well met brothers, I see that my stern words earlier had the desired effect" Marius addressed the two as they picked themselves up.

Trajod turned and slammed his sword through the neck of an Ork crawling towards Bjan, a blade the length of his arm clasped between its teeth.

"That's nineteen now Thunderfist. We're even" Trajod said triumphantly pointing at his brother.

"No, that one was already dead, that was just muscle spasms" Bjan growled.

"Cease your bickering. I swear, by the Primarch, that you two will be on full punishment detail when we're done on this rock and get back to the ship" Marius had lowered his voice injecting it with all the threat he could remember from his years as a Recruit-Sergeant for the Sons of Orar.

"Actually, no you'll start now, Tiguras, Darnom take point, Bjan and Trajod will be joining me for fire support, stow your blades and prime your rifles, prove to me that you two still have worth to this Killteam!"

*****

I've been on a bit of a roll recently getting things painted, mainly because I have a bit of a deadline coming into October as I'm not sure how much hobby time I will have whilst retraining for a new career.

The latest squad finished has been this second unit of Intercessors for the Deathwatch chapter. They are their own five man unit, but can also double up with Deathwatch killteam Ermenrich to make a ten man unit if I find that they perform better that way.

The usual Black basecoat with Incubi Darkness and Thunderhawk Blue light drybrushes to give that sheen to the armour plating.

Again I freehand painted the chapter symbols from my "Second Founding and Later" list I culled from Lexicanum40k.

This time with have (left to right):

Templar Darnom of the Emperor's Shield.

Bjan Thunderfist of the Sons of the Russ.

Knight-Brother Trajod of the Iron Knights chapter.

Sergeant Marius of the Sons of Orar chapter.

Brother Tiguras of the Fulminators chapter.

Continuing on with the second grid, this unit fulfils one of the "Unit of 2+ models" boxes giving my a further ten points.

This increases my overall total to Seven Hundred points.

Until next time...

Imperial Guardsmen, A Catachan Company's Tale - part 1.

Tree branches exploded all around as gunfire erupted from the shadows ahead.

Corporal Cays ducked and fell onto his front, bark and leaves showering him as he fell, the vox unit on his back sparked as it was hit by a fist sized bullet and came apart.

"Some shit we're in now Corp?" One of the troopers shouted over the din.

"Where's Sergeant Kunz?" He asked back, risking a glance above the fallen tree he was using for cover.

Before them the clearing had been silent, the Orks obviously had been waiting in ambush and opened fire just when the platoon had entered lethal range.

Strangely disciplined behaviour for the warlike aliens.

Already he could hear the calls for medics up and down the line. Third squad had been fortunate to be at the tail end of the column moving forwards and thus far hadn't sustained any casualties that Cays knew of.

"Corporal Cays, get me in touch with the Colonel".

Sergeant Kunz' voice boomed through the firefight. He appeared around a tree just behind Cays position, blood streaming down his left arm from a wound in his bicep.

"Can't sarge, vox-pack is fragged" Cays motioned to the still sparking unit on his back.

"Get rid of that crap Corporal, you're a lasman again now" Kunz easily ordered, standing upright behind a tree nearby, "We're going to try to break to the left and see if we can flank these bastards"

"Aye sarge, fireteam up to the left, grenades to clear a path and then into the bastards. Knives and bayonets at the ready" Cays called out, hearing a chorus of affirmatives from their unit.

A change in the firefight drew their attention.

Orks had started howling and there was a constant blast of rounds being fire in quick succession. A blast of flames ignited something explosive blowing out a new hole in the trees opposite. 

Flames lit up the source of their fortune.

"Screaming Devil's, Screaming Devil's" a trooper shouted and pointed.

Both Kunz and Cays turned to look over their respective cover and witnessed the fighting efficiency of Veteran Catachan Troopers at work.

Each of the veterans were lit by the hellfire they had unleashed, their fatigues were dulled by mud and sweat, but the red berets they wore marked them out as the elite of the Catachan regiments here on Attica.

Shotguns were racked and fired with accuracy and speed blowing chunks out of Greenskins who were still reeling at the sudden turn.

Grenades fell amidst the mobs and shredded individuals, wounding the rest. A heavily muscled, soot covered veteran easily swung his heavy flamer around as if it was a child toy, the huge tank of fuel on his back not affecting him in the slightest.

In a split second the ambushers had been ambushed and it was turning into a massacre.

"Go with the plan, get your arses moving Catachans" Kunz roared as he primed a grenade and set off sprinting.

"Up, up, follow the Sarge, do you want to live forever?" Cays shouted encouragement at his soldiers as they set off into the firestorm.

*****

You've got to love the Imperial Guard really. 

They're not Super-Human Meta-Soldiers or Hulking Aliens or Psykers without peer.

Instead they are the everyday human who fights for the Imperium against every threat imaginable. They're given a basic flak vest and a Lasrifle and told to "dig in" against aliens, traitors and daemons.

I've built a couple of Imperial Guard armies over the years of the hobby I've done. This time I am building two different forces at the same time, with some generic sections which can be passed between the two as needed.

The first one I've started working on are the Jungle Fighters, The Catachans.

From the slightly high gravity deathworld of Catachan, these soldiers are some of the toughest which the Imperial guard can produce.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the overly muscled 80's action hero asthetic, I have always had a soft spot for these guys with their more gung-ho attitude towards life in the 41st millennium.

Most people seem to base their Catachan army on the US forces during the Vietnam war, often with a colonel with lemon squeezer hat and transporting everybody in Valkyries. I'm surprised they don't start playing music.

Rather then 'nam, just like with my armour, I am working towards a WW2 US Marine infantry company. Just with the GW Catachan paint scheme as I'd already began painting the miniatures before I settled on an organisation for them (I may add some combat engineers later on, I may attempt the USMC Pacific camo on these models).

So the infantry company will have a HQ section, Three Infantry platoons of Three Squads, A Mortar squad and a Fire support Squad.

I've also painted up a squad of Veteran Guardsmen or "Catachan Devil's" as they are sometimes known, and am considering expanding this one squad into a full platoon themselves.

Each veteran is converted with a Better wearing head from the Tempestus Scions kit, as are all the Sergeants and Command Officers throughout this force.

The Veteran squad, the metal Heavy Flamer to the right of the Sergeant is one of my all-time favourite GW models.

These models were converted with Beret Heads as mentions, Grenade Launchers culled from spare Cadian parts and Shotguns from space Marine Scouts.

Because who doesn't love a squad of Commando's firing scatterguns at will!

I picked red for the berets as they will match the red bandana theme of the regular Catachans, tying the force together through it's different units.

The first of the regular line infantry squads, again the Sergeant got a beret head and a grenade launcher was added to the unit.

I am considering swapping out two troopers for a Missile Launcher team to give the force some bite, but we'll see.

Here we have a shot of all the Imperial guard forces together.

The newly painted Catachan Veteran and line squads along with the Last Chancers penal unit, the Sanctioned Psykers with their Commissar and the Leman Russ Vanquisher.

This will expand as things get finished as I have half a.mind to take this force to apocalypse level allied to my growing Deathwatch forces to face my Ork Horde!

Lastly hobby bingo update and even though I haven't finished clearing the first grid (I have two boxes left) I started my second to draw points from these painted projects.

Two units of ten models each gives me twenty points, giving me a new total of 690 points.

Until next time...

Imperial Armour - An Armoured Squadron Tale - part 1.

Dust clouds drifted across the hard packed dirt road that led down towards the Arden Gate, the town straddling one of the main through-fares leading to Lanatheum, the captial of Attica-Secundo.

Lieutenant Vayce regarded the road ahead through the viewports of his turret cupola. The Recce teams had reported recent movement but no trace of the Greenskins who had invaded the planet months earlier.

Still, that didn't mean that the aliens weren't out there. He'd been receiving disturbing reports of numbers of so called "Kommando's" that the Orks were using with increasing regularity from the infantry fighting on the other fronts.

He checked his auspex to be sure and then pushed his way up through the hatch to ride with his head in the fresh air.

He loved being a tanker, it was his calling from the Emperor of Mankind, but still, it stank so badly of fuel, oil, cordite and unwashed bodies that all recruits learned to quickly breathe through their mouth.

The warm air was stale but fresh compared to the interior of the tank and what a tank he had.

He was personally in command of a Leman Russ Vanquisher, produced on Forgeworld Stygies almost four centuries ago, it had been recovered and refitted three times due to damage in that time. The long eight meter cannon was a Tank-Killer, firing armour piercing shells it could kill almost any enemy vehicle they came up against. It was a priceless artifact which was becoming harder to make new each century as much knowledge was forgotten by the tech-priests.

His Armoured Squadron was compromised of four Leman Russ tanks, a second Vanquisher like his own, a Battle Cannon toting standard pattern and an Exterminator pattern with its twin-autocannon turret. This last tank was extremely deadly to enemy infantry with its hull and sponson heavy Bolters as well as the Stubber machine gun mounted on the cupola like his own machine.

They moved towards the crestline where the trees blocked the view towards the township, his fellow commanders taking the chance for some air like himself.

He flicked down the wirestalk of his microphone and triggered his squadron vox.

"Recce Spear, this is Squadron Actual, report in Shadrice"

"Sir, under heavy assault. Greenskin forces charging from...".

The vox cut out for a moment then Vayce's blood ran cold for a second as he heard the extended firing of a pair of autocannons.

When the Recce-Sergeants voice came back clear Vayce was already pushing his way back inside the turret, the other tank commanders followed his example, clanging hatches closed behind them.

"...again, incoming enemy vehicles, repeat incoming enemy vehicles, long range fire, I say..."

There was a faint distant bang, muffled by the dead air of the hot afternoon. A second later a whopping shriek came from out of the sky.

"Incoming enemy fire" Vayce voxed to his squadron, "Advance forwards towards the treeline and fire at will. Sergeant Rhodes, you and I will target vehicles, Coropal Muir enemy infantry, Sergeant Elam targets of opportunity, our Sentinels are under attack and need our support. May the Emperor Protect!"

*****

Let's start posting in September with a bang!

Throughout August, in spite of working copious amounts of overtime, I did find the time to start work on some of my long overdue Imperial Guard, (they'll always be Imperial Guard to me, not Astra Militarum).

I bought a Leman Russ Vanquisher conversion off eBay years ago and never got around to working with the tank because:

1. The original owner had modelled bullet damage in the most stupid places.
2. It was missing the track links.
3. The Basilisk Cannon the had used for the gun wasn't glued together properly or even squarely!

So, over the course of Lockdown part 2, I was idly browsing eBay and came across an auction for a full set of track links, and for less then a fiver including postage...BARGAIN!.

A root through the bits box of Doom I picked up from Fraser a while back yielded a proper Forgeworld Vanquisher turret, which just needed a little fettling to get up to standard.

So, the basis for the tank was set, however I wanted to try to take this opportunity to work on the tank to try to make it more "realistic" I guess.

Having watched a few WW2 documentaries and several of The Chieftain's videos, I went searching for suitable stowage and kit to cover the tank with.

The answer was a bag of resin stowage from a company called "Redog Models UK" on eBay.

These are their 1/48 scale Sherman stowage packs. I bought two separate packs, as a way to work on more Tanks in the future.

As with all resin parts, I washed them with warm soapy water after trimming off the flash and filing the admittedly few, casting lines on them.

Then it was just a matter of adding them logically to the tank:

Most clustered around the engine bay and the storage bin at the rear, as the crew obviously wouldn't want things being crushed by the turret as it swings.

I added several pieces to the turret, mainly kitbags rather then the crates and jerry can which are dotted about the engine bay.

I also added some spare track links to the side of the turret opposite the storage locker. This ideas is taken from WW2 Sherman's who would use track links, sandbags and the like to add extra protection to the frontal armour whenever they could.

Sadly the Leman Russes design at the front end makes this kind of awkward for keeping the turret and hull mounted weapon able to be moved.

At this point, I was thinking of this tank more as a British Sherman Firefly rather then a far future tank, so doing some research for photo's of a preserved tank, I came across these and the idea formed for adding camo netting to the tank as well:

Off to Boots Chemist one morning on a break at work it was for some Medical Gauze.

About half hours work with some watered down PVA yielded these results:

I chose not to wrap the entire tank, like the preserved one, as not to obscure all the details and panelling on the sides of the tank. 

Also keeping it away from any obvious movement area's, such as tracks, turret, etc.

And the "hot" areas, like the engine radiator grills and exhausts, I had fun wrapping it around the Stubber at the top of the turret and trying to get it to stay in place...

By now we were ready for painting, a blast of Death Guard Green spray gave a brilliantly easy "Army Green" base coat to work from.

From there it was just blocking in the main colour areas of Corvus Black, Baneblade and Mournfang Browns, some of the tarp was painted in Castellan Green.

The Camo netting was drybrushed Abaddon Black at this point and washed with NuLn Oil.

Tanks aren't clean machines, and I decided that my own Armour was going to look well used, so off researching weathering techniques to try out.

(As well as pushing the Tank away from being a toy, I also wanted to try to push my techniques up a bit, rather then just GW wash from the pot like).

So, with a tutorial I set out the tank with a mixture of Doombull Brown, Water and a drop of Washing up Liquid.

The latter is to break the surface tension of the water and allow it to run freely into the panel lines and around rivet heads:

Slightly patchy finish, but not to worry as I will be adding dust over the entire model soon.

An unexpected benefit of the Doombull Brown mixture was that the paint slightly separated as it was drying, leaving me with a great darkening effect, and a slightly reddish patina around the raised areas.

I then accentuated this with a wash made of Fire Dragon Bright (a light orange) with the same mixture of water and Washing up Liquid to run over the red lines for rust accumulation.

I also took the opportunity to add one of the most interesting parts of a Firefly to the Vanquisher Cannon. 

Namely the famous half barrel camouflage, which was used to try to disguise the longer battles of the 17pdr guns the historical tanks carried. Considering that this is the "Tank-Killer"* version of the Leman Russ I wanted to include it as well, so added some Ulthuan Grey to make the markings.

Someone, I think it was either Fraser or Dominic said that it really needed a unit marking, possibly an Army Flash as well. 

Once again it was back to research, this time coming from both WW2 and an older 40k rulebook.

The unit marking on the right of the photo is based off of the British markings, which used horizontal "Blue over colour" to denote Armour and then which squadron (HQ, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Mech, Artillery, Recce). I added the Gothic donated "5" from true 3rd edition inspiration for the 5th company of my regiment.

On the left of the photo is the lightning bolt flash of the Army Group the regiment is attached to.

I also took the opportunity to pick out the spotlights with Iyanden Darksun and the various Imperial Aquilla with Ulthuan Grey.

It was all coming together really well at this point, so I decided to dirty the tank some to blend it all together and look like a real fighting machine.

The process was the same as my method for painting miniatures bases. Successive drybrushed of Baneblade Brown, and Ushabti Bone.

In-between the two layers, the Netting got a further drybrush of Mournfang Brown to darken it against the tank.

These stages are completed quite quickly so I never took any photo's of them, but wanted to get the tank itself finished.

And here it is...

The army badge, Company flash and Barrel Camouflage are all desaturated in these photo's because of my LED spotlight. They are very readable from three feet away** in person.

Hobby Bingo wise this tank gives me lots of points:

10 points for the Vehicle box.

50 points for the Horizontal line.

50 points for the Vertical line.

So 110 points, taking me to 670 points in total now.

I have a standard pattern Leman Russ on the go, and am in negotiations to trade for a second FW Vanquisher turret and Russ hull for it from Duncan.

The plan for the armoured Squadron is to build up the following list:

Leman Russ Vanquisher Tank commander.

Leman Russ Vanquisher.

Leman Russ Exterminator.

Leman Russ Battle Tank.

Two squadrons of Two Armoured Sentinels.

Atlas Recovery Tank.

These will all be painted in the dirt green colours and not tied to a particular GW regiment, so no visible tank commanders***, as I want to be able to use the tanks with ANY regiment of guardsmen I may choose to model (I have Catachan Jungle Fighters and Cadian Shock Troops in the background of the painting desk currently).

Well, time to crack on with some more painting.

Until next time...

* Not counting the actual Leman Russ Tank Destroyer with the big Laser Cannon. That's a Tank Destroyer and not a Tank. 

Yes there is a difference between the two types!

** My go to standard. If it looks good from three feet away, then it's good enough. 

I paint for pleasure and for my own display/gaming, not competetive "Golden Daemon/Crystal Brush" awards.

*** Unless I go down the route of possibly magnetising the Commanders turret cupola with him in it!

Hobby Bingo - August recap.

 

Another month in 2021 is over, and it's been a strange one for me at least.

The whole driver shortage in the UK isn't unique to my depot or industry it seems. Everywhere is crying out for drivers and as such I've been working the maximum hours I can legally to get work covered for the company and also to gain some extra coin in my pockets.

For the last fortnight I've been on night shifts which has hampered my motivation for painting at times, however I have gotten some projects completed, just not in time for the cut off of 31st August...

A recap of the month saw me complete two smaller painting projects, both Chris and Dave haven't posted anything, but I know that they're both working on hobby again.

Points earned in August are:

I earned 220 points with a Knight-Questor and some Cryxian Helljacks.

Chris and Dave didn't score any points this month.

Which leaves the scoreboard as follows:

Chris: 1250

Lewis: 590.

Dave: 80.

Whilst I have closed on Chris, the real challenge will be filling the full grid and passing him, as with an impending job change looking likely I may find my painting time cut short through retraining and learning the new career.

We'll see what happens...