A trip down memory lane... hand me the paint stripper!!

Welcome to a bit of a time machine post,



Firstly the future:



I have an absolutely insane amount of projects in the pipeline, so I will definately have to get on with them and get blogging! so the upside will be more regular posts... in theory



To cope with the said "ever increasing to-do list" I have had a re-organise of my room and set up a dedicated workbench. This SHOULD increase the workflow, by basically lining up projects and "conveyor belting" them through one at a time.



I mean, even just generally listing my projects you can imagine the workload (and this isnt even detailing the sheer numbers)



40k - Lucky88th

• A ton of infantry, including all the command squads and some upcoming forgeworld goodness - I've naughtily gone and ordered some of the new gear (which i will leave for another post) and some older stuff which i will go into more detail later


• TANKS - All of my tanks are unfinished, and ive increased the tank numbers because a local shop had a basilisk on offer for £15 (how am i supposed to not go in...)


• Valkyries/Vendettas - I have one built, but not finished. I have another still in the box...


• Vulture - I have it built, not finished and plans to get another one :D

40k - Hive Splinter Borlin

• 15 hormagaunts to finish painting (9 done!)


• 36 hormagaunts to finish building, then paint


• a few genestealers to finish up, possibly grab another box...


• build a zoanthrope


• build my recently aquired lictor count-as


• buy a mawloc?

Dystopian Wars

• Recieve parcel


• Paint up fleet :D

Zomg

• Paint nearly everyone - something like 50 minis


• write rulebook....

A new gaming project thats working its way through my mind as we speak. details of this will come eventually... :D lets just say its going to be much more terrain friendly and wallet friendly.

okay, so now a little wander into the past

Welcome to the Mandreel VIIIth exploration force.

This army was my very first exploration into the world of 40k - and wargaming as a whole!

My friend wandered into the lunch hall and slapped a GW leaflet into my hands, we were instantly talking about which fantasy army we would get, and how many thousands of cavalry and archers we would line up...

flicking to the back of the leaflet, I spy some Tallarn desert raiders surrounding a basilisk.

That moment I was hooked.

My local GW store was out of desert raiders, so I grabbed a box of valhallans, and the mandreel force was born.

This is Captain Komazi (kamakazi... he was always running forward!)

This heroic senior commander had a full and vivid backstory (mainly about being demoted from a much higher rank for disobeying orders to send his men to their death - thus gaining his mens loyalty in battle), he had many memories of rediculous heroism on the gaming table, including killing things way above his station!

Here he is with his Commissar Advisor Ravenclaw

Platoon Command - me first work into converting (as opposed to the company command squad's kit bashing)



The infantry squads - you can see that every sergeant has a name




Armoured fist squad (note they are the plastic catachans - so wearing T-shirts in the snow isn't a problem when you have a transport...)

Speaking of vehicles... this kind of gives you an insight into my plans for this force, as you will notice, the infantry is mostly metal (easy to strip the paint from) and most of the following vehicles aren't too bad. with a bit of a tidy, removing of some trinkets and a change of paint scheme, they could easily join the ranks of the lucky88th, which is what I intend to do with them.

I'll leave the old command squad, and the bad conversions, but all the infantry and tanks will go down great... and i even have a theme for them, which I'll go into at the bottom

Just as an aside, check out the slogans on the side of the tanks... what fun it is to go through old momories :D

I love these old tank commanders, shown here with my first ever 40k vehicle!



The tank was adorned with all sorts of trinkets over the years, barbed wire and an orky totem and eventually the all important BUCKET, with which he would demonstrate the amazing suspension of the leman russ and the smoothness of it's ride




This exterminator would be a fantastic addition

I'm not sure if this hellhound is recoverable, if my memory serves me right it was painted twice, but if my cleaning agents are succesfull, then it would be a nice unit for gaming, possibly with newer track guards.

And check out some of these little gems, prime for a repaint!


Although this Yarrick has been sealed, so he might be a pain...
And a lord solar macharius, who wouldnt actually make a bad officer of the fleet or something equally pompous



These guys were put together just after the Armageddon codex came out, some militia, i figured they were a hardened bunch of draughted gangsters who brought along lots of strange weaponry

Like shotguns, crowbars, and a big spruey lascannon count as...

This was the boss guy, i figured he would have a big forklift for a hand (power fist)

And some veterans - i couldnt resist the steel legion troopers (i'm even considering getting a few of them - and reusing these heavy weapons

some more infantry (in bad shape) and a heavy bolter, which although this one looks a bit rubbish, it has inspired me to have a got at a few bits of scenery with hastily build defences, like all those sponsons i must have lying around...


Mortar teams, I was eyeing them up to see how easy it would be to drill them out... though to be fair i do have plenty of plastic ones too...

These are a few little gems too, 6 old style plastic stormtroopers, and 5 old ratlings. i'm not a fan of ratlings (or any abhumans... in 40k, how very imperial of me) but it would be a waste of such nice models to ignore them, so they will be made use of. and the stormtroopers just deserve some love for their berets!
Well I hope you had fun wandering through my old army, its not an army I'm proud of, being my very first its awfully painted, massively unfinished, and just extremely old and bashed. but I loved this army through all the hundreds of games it went through, all the times it beat my friend's ultramarines, the time 50 guardsmen attacked a single terminator sergeant, he did fall, but valiantly, when captain komazi would constantly roll for his bionics. all of these times.

so i think as a mark of honour and thanks for this fantastic army, the very least i can do is bring them bang up to date, and put them back on the battlefield where they should be.

My plan, which is already in action. is to strip the infantry, and give them a lucky88th esque colour scheme, still urban camo, but more greatcoat than cadian. the reason for their nice wooly clothing?

they will become the artillery company infantry detachment, defending my earthshaker emplacement, the refurbed basilisk, and the new basilisk from the many horrors that stalk the borlingrav city streets. all that standing around waiting for a fight will require good warm clothing, and plenty of defence based scenery...

its a challange im taking to with gusto, and have bought a few small forgeworld goodies to spice up the force.

well cheers for reading my aimless ramble! (those who didnt dissolve from boredom!)

and as an aside, i would like to thank all the blogs that have mentioned my blogsites without my knowing, i've been flicking around the net and was so suprised to see where all the pageviews were coming from, and extremely flattered by all the kind comments on my modelling/painting learning curves

Cheers for reading, and heres to a hobby filled 2011!

TSINI