Strangely coloured apparatus! Not so bad a paintjob for some teenagers in the early ’90s. Before mini painting became a science and youtubers revealing to us the newest and hottest techniques of how to paint your minis on a daily basis.
Let see what I can make of these. Maybe I will give it a try to strip off the paint. In any case, useful for destroyed Titans, scenery items and objectives. Also, I could practice some rearrangement of the torso on them. (Frankentitan?) The bases are really well done and in good condition. Maybe spare ones for bases in less good condition. Until that time all that stuff goes into another box, old but not so dirty. That is the place where they once came from.
As of today, I’m an active contributor to the Lost Minis Wiki. For a reason I do not remember I stumbled across this site a few day ago and immediately fell in love with it. At the beginning it was great fun to look at old minis I wanted to have as a youth but could never afford in the early days. Nevertheless, at certain points, I realized I own some stuff that is not pictured or even listed on LMW. So I wrote to the admin this week that I wanted to contribute and got my login details within a day. Originally I had only planned to upload some pictures but then I spent this whole afternoon and early evening on creating a complete new page. And this is the result:
I was quiet surprised not to find this 33-years old legendary box there on LMW although there are thousands of minis from over a 1000 manufacturers listed. But, I guess, metal minis last much longer and most of the plastics went down the garbage chute in the past decades. So, probably, nobody really posseses a representable example to show on a wiki anymore.
I never did a wiki page before and I had to spend some hours before (almost!) everything was fine. Luckily, the admins left some useful tutorials for editing pictures and the the code could easily be adopted (copied and edited!) from other contributors. Nevertheless, it took me some time to figure it out how it all works.
These old Space Orks weren’t always mine. Again, a certain old gaming mate gave them to me about a year ago after resting for more than 20 years in his place. And it is complete! No piece is missing or broken. These unharmed sprues are likely to become an Ork warband for a scifi skirmish game. I had planned to write a blog entry about this box before but only today was the day and here are the pics:
36 minis in a box! And we did not even pay (what is now!) 15€ for these boxes, may it be Orks, Imps or Squats. While writing these lines, a box of 11 Ork boyz is 35€! Ok, agreed, a lot has changed since then. Nevertheless, let see what we can make of them!
Only one post! Shouldn’t be too much as there is much going on on the hobby front. Today I got these two wonderful boxes from an old gaming mate full of gaming memories. This is stuff from our earliest tabeltopping days with some surprises I didn’t know about.
The Titans are the ones I missed earlier in the Adeptus Titanicus unboxing. The metals came as a real surprise to me, including the Ratling sniper. I always wanted to have one! The first-edition Imps are the first tabletop army I battled against with my old Squats who still rest in boxes upstairs. Maybe there is some new battle ahead in the future.
Earlier this year an old gaming buddy gave me his first-edition Adeptus Titanicus from 1988. This box rested longer with him than I know him. We never played it together but, as far as I know, it saw a lot of action.
Box in good conditionGot me hooked
Today was the day that I opened the box for deeper inspection. However, I was already warned that there wasn’t much left in the box, namely the rulebook and the Titan models.
Strangely, when looking at the Titan models in the scenery on the back, you can see they are different from the usual old plastic Warlord models. Recognizable especially when looking at the legs‘ armor plates where you can find much more detail on the models in action. This difference is also true for the unpainted model in the circle which shows the standard model. Even in the old Citadel catalogues I couldn’t find a model that is exactly the same as in the scenery. An „unseen“ Titan?
Content as it cameFrom the 80s with love
Only one missing… Nice!Mostly complete
The big prize was the seven polystyrene buildings which are still in good condition. They will go nicely with the new AT buildings. I can’t see any difference in size despite the smaller scale of the old edition.
Rulebook came as pdfSorted outA little rest of TitansWow, that’s… creative
Only one Titan model was still in the box and I’m not really sure what to make of it. The bases can be restorated and there are a lot of heads and weapon options. No idea where all the Titans went but I have about ten of the old plastic Warlord models in my collection, in addition to some metal Reavers and Warhounds. Enough for epic battles!
Another giftLong live resealable bags!After sorting out…… before
Next step is to finish some of my Titans already under painting and play some solo games to learn the rules.
Cheers from here to an old gaming buddy who let me have his old stuff! The AT box was not the only thing. So more to come.
The last few weeks I managed to finish four units of 40k minis, 34 figures as a whole. That was only possible due to the extensive use of Citadel Contrast paints. Otherwise that would have taken me years!
These 12 Hormagaunts are my first Tyranids ever and were completely done with Contrast paints – with a very good result considering the effort. I have no intention of collecting a ’nid army which is my least favourite of all 40k factions. My plan is to use them for Space Hulk-like scenarios in Kill Team. Maybe some Tyranid warriors will join their ranks later.
The next three units are all Orks that I wanted for KT.
I really like the idea of a big bunch of Snotlings as a kill team. These 10 were painted up nearly in zero time so I might add some more in the future if they turn out to be fun in the game. Most was done with Contrast paints. The Runtherd is a mixture of contrast and traditional method.
Burna Boyz is what I wanted most for KT Arena. Their area effect fire template should do good use in the narrow passages. Only the skin was done with contrast paints, the rest is traditional method.
These Nobz were painted the same way as the Burnas. Painting Ork skin the contrast way gives very nice results. Until now I only had Nobz with sluggas and choppas. Now I also have options for kombi-weapons but what I really wanted was the boss with the big choppa… Good noone can hear me talking! 😉
While the world keeps debating about sustainable living, recycling and reusing, we are bringing this concept to the gaming world. Nothing we played with last weekend was younger than 20 years… and it still works! 😉
Amazingly this was the first time we met face-to-face for gaming this year. First our timetables were against us and later lockdown struck – though we played several scenarios of Descent via Skype during this time.
We started this gaming weekend with some 1989 SpaceHulk. I had never played this classic before and I felt there was a gap to be filled. However, my mate had lost the rules but now he brought them from his parents‘ place… along with some other stuff and we played an introductory mission twice.
First time I ended up with the choice between blowing my flamethrower Termi myself or going into close combat. I opted for close combat and lost it… expectingly! Second time, the same mission, I had learned my lesson and managed to fulfill the objective in short time.
Still a nice game but before going into SpaceHulk any deeper I’d rather go for KillTeam. However, I like the idea of moving blips which turn into groups of ‚Nids and I was surprised how much the whole concept reminded me of Descent which came some 15 years later.
Next morning we started out with BattleTech which we hadn’t played for over a year. Shameful! However, to keep it short(er), we decided for one Recon-Lance each. An encounter I lost bitterly! I hate a crazy Spider in my back!
Along with the SpaceHulk rules my mate brought some other gaming stuff from his parents‘ attic and one of his old gaming friends who wanted to clear his cellar. First thing was a group of old FASA tanks for BattleTech. I purchased these for a fair price for my growing BattleTech army.
Something else that was on offer was an old 2nd edition SpaceMarine-box, today better known as Epic.
Epic is on my list for building an army since a long time but I did not have much hope it would ever come true. At least as long as GW does not release a new edition. Now, this offer came quite as a surprise and could be the first step of a long gaming dream come true. Though there will be a lot of work ahead and as the minis are all oop, this could become expensive when finding additional troops on ebay.
However, a great bonus: While my mate rummaged through his left-overs in his parents‘ attic, he found an old box of BattleTitans with five Warlord Titans still on sprue which he gave me for free! A bottle of gin was the least I could give him for this. Cheers! 🙂
Hobby time during the last three days was spent completely on Kill Team scenery. Everything I own, besides of the items from the Kill Team Arena box, was still on sprue, left to build and paint in the boxes: buildings and ruins from the Sector Fronteris box, the Servo Haulers from the Ork starter box, Krogskull’s Boys, and (Surprise! Surprise!) a Wall of Martyrs from the Tau starter box, Advance Team Starpulse.
The Sector Fronteris worked out quite nicely and will also be useful in Star Wars: Legion games. I like especially the rusty main colour, originally Army Painter Fur Brown spray.
The Servo Haulers are not finished yet. They were given only a black primer with another basecoat of Team Yankee Chieftain Green. I guess I will take my time to paint these because I really started to like them while building. With some special rules they can bring a lot of fun in scenarios. But why did I use this colour?
Unfortunately I had two cans of the Chieftain Green and both are leaky as you can see from the pictures.
I already had this problem with other brands and it’s not a question of age. I have much older cans which are still tight. Whatever, I have to use them up as quickly as possible and so I used the spray on the haulers and the wall. In the end, I think, the colour is not bad at all as it brings a dirty look of decay with it
The Wall of Martyrs is not a piece that I fancy at all. Too many skeletons and awkward iconography that are so… well, 40K! But someone left that literally at my door step and ran away. I thought about selling or just dumping it but in the end I decided otherwise. Let see what I can make of it.
The last few weeks I managed to built and paint the scenery items from the Warhammer 40.000 Kill Team Arena box. Not a very exciting project but it’s nice to see some things getting done quickly.
The whole set plus two boxes on the left.
The whole set consists of 8 Promethium/oil barrels, 2 plasma barrels, 12 big and 8 smaller boxes, 2 industrial pipes and 10 doors. Two additional boxes seen in the picture are from the Sector Fronteris box. Instead of the colourful schemes shown in the Arena rulebook, I used rather dull and dirty colours which, to my mind, fit the 40k-atmosphere much more. This way, I hope, they will also fit with other games like Special Ops or Zona Alfa without looking completely out of place.
Barrels and boxes to take cover behind.
The main aim was to get things done quickly. The industrial tubes got a basecoat of Army Painter Platemail spray followed by Army Painter Quickshade Strong tone… something that I didn’t use in years.
More cover.
The doors were basecoated with Army Painter German Grey spray, followed by Army Painter Quickshade Soft tone. First I wanted to finish at this point but I added some details for contrast.
Watch out what’s behind, Phil!
Of course the doors are crying for even more details like blood smears or bullet holes on them but I keep that for a later date. Though not a demanding paintjob, these pieces will add lots of depth and detail to a battleboard. For now I call this side project finished as there are too many other things in the making.
Some years ago I promised myself not to paint any more miniatures for other people. Now this promise was broken. The reason I promised this anyway was that it took me too much time to paint other people’s stuff while my own projects accumulated on the pile of shame. Nevertheless, now I painted these XV25s for a friend of mine. So, why did I do this:
He is one of my best friends and it’s for his birthday.
It gave me the opportunity to try out GW’s new Contrast paints.
I hope I can convince my mate that it is so easy to paint Vior’la Taus with Contrast paints that he starts to paint them for Kill Team himself. (Canny little ba…d, I am!)
I don’t really know what to think about the result. On the one hand it’s very easy to do in a short amount of time on the other hand the standard method produces much better results. Maybe it’s better not to look at individual figures but to imagine them as a whole unit on table top. For now it’s ok and maybe I will add some details and highlights later. Another ‚first‘ is the bases. Here I used one of the „Acrylic muds“ from MIG. The result is really good but I don’t know why it should be any better than the one’s from Vallejo or GW.
Nice story about how I got hand on these figures. At the end of last year I took part in my first scale modelling exhibition as a participant (Maple Leaf Bühl, Baden-Württemberg) where I met a Canadian guy who also was in 40k. There he sold some of his stuff along with the XV25s in a battered box but everything on sprue… for 10€. Happy with the deal I took it as a later present for my friend. Now I decided to paint them up as I already had all the necessary paints on my shelf.
