"Mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not."

 Goblin's Paladins, a small mercenary company operating in the Periphery, has recently completed a re-arm and re-fit, allowing us to see part of its Order of Battle.

Goblin's Paladins - Command and Fire Lances

I have three factions planned for my Battletech collection. The first, 1st Canopian Cuirassiers of the Magistcracy of Canopus, we've already seen, including in action against Periphery mercenaries and pirates. The second are my mercenary company, now with two lances finished. I intend to add a third lance at some point to give it some better bite, but for now:

Elements of 1st Company, mercenary company "Goblin's Paladins", c.3067-3085

mortem tyrannis: growth and growth

 A few additions to the Death Guard.

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Gehazi

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Naaman

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Joab

You may remember my squads of 7-strong Death Guard infantry. Fluffy, fun, neat - a great part of this accidental project. Unfortunately, the 9th edition codex made those squads immediately illegal. Now, while 9th edition is basically unplayable due to a) the overwritten rules making it hard to follow the game and b) the constant rules changes making any faint understanding immediately obsolete, I wasn't totally happy with a few aspects of the squads anyway. One lacked an icon, for instance, and I wanted more of the fun equipment that 8/9th has brought to Mortarion's Chosen.

So I painted and converted a few more lads. Now the three squads are ten-strong, which is less flavoursome but there are still three of them - and I can always drop a few members if I ever actually play a game with them.

Those ex-Slaves

You are not machines, you are not cattle - you are men!

there's power in a union

I've had these on my desk since they came out. Always love a narrative of working lads breaking their chains. It's even better if the chains are laser-powered. The pit slaves in Necromunda '98 had similar vibes, and the tale of Bull Gorg goes hard. It's tragic that we never got a miniature of him.

The ex-Slave Ogryn gang in Necromunda '17 fills a similar place, with the addition benefit of just straight-up lobotomizing some of the workers. grim But solves a problem! or does it

The gang (for which I'm yet to decide on a name) also fits into the vague 'civilians' project. These guys can be an outlaw gang of workers in revolt or they can used as flavour or muscle for various factions - all their 'weapons' are really tools, after all. This is why they have my desert basing instead of the grimy underdark basing you've seen before.

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: VICTORY

 I know I haven't posted here, but I did finish the Old World Army Challenge this year!

really should have brushed my hair first huh

My total of Wood Elves stands at something like 3910 points, so I'm nearly finished. However, this year's OWAC will be something very different. Stay tuned...

Those Guys

 Just some lads.

lads lads lads

I try to group the civilian posts by theme, but these lads (and the below robot) are all I've done in the past few months, so they can go up together. These four are available as Sailors at Crooked Dice.

yeah just headed to the space-pub for a space-schnitty

I randomly decided to make one chap a football fan because why not. The meaty bloke on the right is into the same punk band as one of my squats:

we ain't dead! say it a-fucken-gain!

bleep-blorp

Finally, we have the non-sentient P0-N3 bot, 'Bill', from Skull & Crown's Space Scrappers line. An absolute treat to paint up!

Project: Blood Bowl - Amazons

 It's been a while. My computer became too unstable to write anything longer than an email, [redacted] occured, I got promoted at work. Luckily, I've done fucken tons of hobby stuff since April. Let's start with a fully completed project.

watch the parrot!

Of course, about sixty seconds after I finished the last of these girls, Games Workshop released a new ruleset for them. It doesn't look too bad. Catchers are gone and while the blitzers are reduced to 0-2, we now have blockers, who are also 0-2. So I should be able to use the team without too much trouble - if littlemangs and I ever get around to seeing one other in real life, that is.

Presenting the Lemuria Leopards!

League of Two-As-Four: Match One - Uzkulak Udugs v Skälsbërg Skrëëchers

Good afternoon, folks! A few weeks ago, my regular opponent Mangs-of-War and I got together on a calm autumn day to inaugurate a miniature Blood Bowl league.

..the teams line up! Here comes the kick!

Unfortunately, this was on 14 March, and I'm writing this nearly a month later, so I've forgotten nearly all the details. It's been an unforgivably busy month at work and with the Old World Army Challenge, with April not shaking out much better. This means that you will have to settle for some snapshots and my vague recollections.

On the other hand, this is the first match of the League of Two-As-Four, where Mangs and I take our four Blood Bowl teams and mash them against each other. Two coaches! Four teams! For games where we play against ourselves,* we will hand control of the team to the other coach. Fun! The team roster looks like this:

Team	Team Name	Coach
Chaos Dwarfs	Uzkulak Udugs	goblinpaladin
Human	Skälsbërg Skrëëchers	Mangs-of-War
Elf Union	Saphery Strikers	Mangs-of-War
Amazons	Lemuria Leopards**	goblinpaladin

For this first bout, the Uzkulak Udugs took the field against the Skrëëchers, here fielding an Ogre instead of Herr Skrëëch. Come below the cut for pictures and a match summary...

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: Beasts!

 Over at the Old World Army Challenge, the March issue is out!

grr. argh.

I really enjoyed painting these beasts! We're past the halfway point, and some great miniatures are still to come...

morten tyrannis: officer

 Good to get things ticked off the list.

hail mortarion! hail the death-of-kings!

Okay, I don't have a list. I do enough project management stuff in my work that I don't want to start doing Trello cards for my miniature hobby. But with the current weather systems across eastern Australia, I can't get any undercoating done. This guy has been on my desk in his undercoat for something like a year now, so I painted him!

Part of the reason I was so hesitant was his cloak. With the red-right-arms on some of my XIV Legionnaires, I didn't want to go the obvious route of an officer's red. Likewise, a muddy green would be too obvious for a captain of Nurgle. I decided to pick up a pot of Hobgrot Hide to see what that looked like, and then.... figured I might as well try it on this guy.

Pretty pleased with it.

I'm not sure I really nailed this, and my gradually failing phone means that the photos aren't the strongest - but he is done and that is the very main thing.

Those Who Work: Prospector

 A civilian painted a little while ago!

make sure your helmet is polarised against radiation, kids

This guy had been sitting on my desk for a long time, but I managed to finish him over Christmas. He then sat in my photos account! I was hoping to get more civilians painted to post him with, but the Old World Army Challenge started up, and that's that.

Not really much to say - he's from the Genestealer Cult range, which have a great unified aesthetic for mining and industrial workers, while being grounded in Warhammer 40,000's setting. I demilitarized him a little, giving him a mining laser and the wrench arm, but there is no conversion work.

..so, yes, he still has grenades and a pistol holster. Hellsreach-style planets are dangerous places!

There are still loads more civilians in my pile of inspiration or whatever we're calling them these days, but I really need to get cracking on their terrain.

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: Swordsmen

 My work continues on Wood Elf II over at the Old World Army Challenge V.

Warrior Kithband

Head over to see the February results! Don't forget to check out the other challengers.

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: The Wood Elf-ening

 Been a little quiet here, as I work on wood elves for Old World Army Challenge V.

elves, falcons, and harps! oh my!

I've finished the January challenge already; to see more go here. Hard at work on February, if I don't get distracted by someth