Leman Russ Executioner

On my recent trip to Georgia, I got to hang out with some friends as I noted below. During my time there I got to see (and borrow!) The Imperial Armor Masterclass book from Forge World. First off, this book is awesome. Totally awesome!  Its is a must read for anyone painting tanks, particularly Imperial Guard tanks. Additionally it reviews techniques that I have been exploring with oil based paints, other thinners, and weathering pigments.  Thankfully, I was able to barrow the book- but now I think I'll need to purchase my one copy. Its that good.

First thing was assembling the Executioner and adding some battle damage to the tank. One of the techniques discussed was to take a Dremel Tool and sand down an area to represent shell implosion on the hull. Once you have your 'divot', fill it with green stuff. Then you can shape the green stuff to represent the metal of the tank bending against the force of the shell. Four or five of these areas were added to my LR:D to give a nice battle scarred look. 

The book uses air brushes a good bit. The one thing I know about air brushes is that you need a nice kit (i.e. spend ~$500 and thanks to my good friends at the IRS several good kits went to keeping my roads paved and the military in foreign affairs) and 6 months of time to use the gear. 

Having neither, I used spray paints- Army Builder Army Green and Desert Yellow. My new can of Army Green was noticeably lighter than my older can as well as the Desert Yellow.  While I have been a big fan of these products over time, they are having some consistency problems with the pigment.  I am now considering using a single stage air brush and starting to learn how to use the gear.  Anyway, Army Green was used followed by placing low-tack "painters" tape on the model leaving areas exposed for the camo pattern produced by a few quick sprays of Desert Yellow. 

I then grabbed a sponge from a blister back and added Foundation Paint Charadon Granite and applied it randomly to the tank to represent paint peeling- thus starting the weathering procedures. Be sure to focus on areas that will suffer weathering/paint peeling the most- around the edges, near crew access points, around moving turret parts, etc.

Next time I'll break out the oil paints and really start to distress the model!

Darth Vader: Borderline Personality Disorder

I just love these types of stories, acclaimed physicians (usually psychiatrist) deconstruct the psyche of a famous movie villain. Well Mr. Vader, its your time on the couch and several French Psychiatrist have decided that you have Borderline Personality.
http://screenrant.com/darth-vaders-professional-diagnosis-mikee-63555/

Wondering what it takes to be diagnosed with this condition, well let Wikipedia do some explaining for us:

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder defined in DSM-IV and described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person (generally over the age of eighteen years, although it is also found in adolescents), characterized by depth and variability of moods. The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; chaotic and unstable interpersonal relationships, self-image, identity, and behavior; as well as a disturbance in the individual's sense of self. In extreme cases, this disturbance in the sense of self can lead to periods of dissociation.

So actually, the final scenes of Episode III show Mr. Vader/Skywalker's variability of moods and splitting between black and white when he attacks Padme for assaulting his beliefs in the motivation of the Jedi order all the while he turned his back on them in order to provide Padme a solution to her pending death (which ironically was due to Mr. Vader's direct actions).

Anyway, the writer over at screenrant makes a good case. If the French could figure it out, then why couldn't Master Yoda?  Furthermore, I now am giving my son lessons in psychiatry since after all- teenage Anakin is his favorite character (at least its not JarJar- anymore!).

Battle Report: Marines v Imperial Guard

Battle Report: 

Space Marines vs. Imperial Guard 

-2,000 points-

Last week I got a chance to return to South Georgia to visit family and friends. Luckily there was time to hang out with my old gaming group. Its always a great time to hang out with these guys- this was no different! 

Before I start with the BatRep, let me preface this with a couple of things- first I suck at writing these things; secondly we had been drinking Jack and Water/Coke for a few hours before the game started. So proceed with caution! Thankfully I arrived with a preprinted force of Ultramarines... however several people used some cleaver (i.e. drunken) techniques to construct an army list. 

Who needs Army Builder?

We decided to play 2,000 points per side since the hour was getting late an the liquor was starting to run dry. I used 1,500 points of my Ultramarines along with Newmutants 500 points of Space Marines against Phatoom's  and Avatard40K's Imperial Guard.  After a few dice rolls we decided to play a Pitched Battle of Seize Ground with 3 Objectives. One in the middle of the board, one to my left and another to my right. At this point we were keeping things pretty simple.

Oh.. Jack... why... ?

We deployed first- I put my Land Raider with TH/SS Terminators with Sicarius along with two full Tactical Squads in Rhinos to my right, along with Newmutants Assault Squad with a Chaplain. To my right was an Ironclad Dreadnought, Speeder with Melta, and a Landspeeder Storm with Melta and a naked scout squad. We had another Tactical Squad in reserves taking advantage of Sicarius' special rule to give them Scout.

The Imperial's Deployed something like this- Three squads of  Psychopath Penal Legion's in front of two Leman Russ Variants. To our far left was a Vendetta with Vet Squad. To our far right was another Leman Russ guarded by another Penal Legion Troop, this one with Gunslinger and a Primaris Psyker. Also a Valkyrie with another Vet Squad and Commissar Yarrick was stationed far right.

Turn one:
We moved forward and killed nothing of note...they killed the Landspeeder Storm and the Scout Squad.

The left side of the table- marines advance on the Imperial positions. 

Turn Two:
 Our right flank was a sitting duck... but a duck with fire power. The Land Speeder took out the LR Variant while the Ironclad was just short of charging the Penal Legion. In the Imperial side of the turn, the Primaris would destroy the Ironclad, but the speeder avoided any serious injury. The reserve Tactical Squad also entered play on that side.

(Pictured: a posing cocky Primaris Psyker)

On the left side of the board, we positioned for a devastating turn 3.  Our guns thinned the Penal Legions down a touch and in return on the of the Rhino's was destroyed taking a few marines up in flames with it.

A Vendetta outflanks the Marine advance. 

Turn 3: 
As you can see in the picture above, the Terminators moved forward and charged into the Penal Legion Squads while the Assault Marines moved to take out the Vets coming from the Vendetta.
On the other side of the board- the Tactical Squad moved to take out the Penal Legions while the Valkyrie finally came on that side with the big Yarrick!

Yarrick lands his craft and takes aim against the flanking marines. 

Turn Four: 

The Terminators survived the shooting phase with only one casualty and then took out the Leman Russ Squadran and the Penal Legion who got caught up in a multi-unit charge. The Tactical Squad with a Rhino moved forward and took out the Vendetta with its melta-gun while the Assault Squad moved in and destroyed the Vets. FOR THE EMPEROR!

The calm before the Marine storm!

On the other side of the board, the speeder did a bit of damage to the Valkyrie while it picked up the Penal Legion Squad. The Vets and the Tactical Squad faced off in a small arms fire exchange.. the Tactical Squad getting a minor victory this turn. However, Yarrick was about to charge next turn!. 

With the flank secured against the imperials, the marines claim the objective while the Assault Marines make a move to the middle of the board. 

Turn 5: 

One Tactical Squad was uncontested on the far left objective while the Terminators moved along with the other Tactical Squad in the Land Raider to the middle objective. Almost there... another turn and we will have two objectives secured. 

On the right side, Yarrik and the Tactical Squad battle in close combat leaving a bloody mess. Yarrik came out on top... almost.  The Valk with the re-deployed Penal Legion escaped fire from the Speeder yet again and moved to take the right objective. 

We had a victory right until we didn't. Doh!

Turn 6:
Wait, first we roll.. and damn wouldn't you know, we didn't make it to turn 6. The game ended in a draw with each side taking one objective.  The marines were another turn from two objectives with the bulk of the army coming across the board. I am confident we would have taken it to those lawless guardsmen if only they would have stayed and fought!!

The Penal Legion.

In the end, it was a great battle amongst old friends. I guess a draw was only appropriate. Also, it was brought to my attention that I had a squad of marines in the LR and if they deployed at the end of my turn I could have claimed the center objective- however I think that the IG shooting phase would have done different things that turn instead of going after my speeder (again) and the flanking tactical squad.

Many thanks to Phatoom for hosting us and for the drinks. I can't wait to get back to SoGa for another shot of redemption!

So long for now, Sicarius says goodnight!

-DrGabe