What is done and What is not done

Its near the end of 2012. So here it was thought that there should be a review of what had been completed. This thought was initiated by a review of posts being viewed yesterday. One from the list was titled project pipeline:- here  This was a post in 2011. And there has been little progress with the three projects mentioned therein.

But there has been progress elsewhere. 2012 has been the year when the Grey Knights project's shape took form and the Sisters of Battle and the Steel Legion projects came close to completion. Ideas in planning include an Ogre Warhammer army and a 40k minimal, veteran artillery allied army for the Sisters of Battle, more terminators for the Grey Knights, and some tweaks to the Steel Legion to add more special and assault weapons, plus of course the 3 projects still in the pipeline, and then there are still the Space Hulk minis to paint. Ideas come faster that the time available to paint, as ever.

Have a good 2013 when it comes and thanks for reading this blog.

Steel Legion Mortars Progress

Getting there, but not done yet. Much effort has been spent on bits of Osgiliath on these bases. The standing Mortar loader is missing his left hand as it is glued to the mortar shell at the moment. That dark blob at the base of the shell. This time of year makes progress slow.

Once the mortars are completed the only remaining steel Legion minis here at the moment are a half squad of troops, perhaps to be promoted to veterans - but how to differentiate from non veterans in an easy way. There is also another recently acquired via ebay sergeant that is intended to be converted to another heavy flamer trooper. BTW a basic original box of 10 steel legion on the GW site is still competitively priced at at £20.50. Don't pay crazy ebay prices for steel legion.

Troublesome Preachers Redeemed

Preachers are a fluffy addition to Sisters of Battle force, yet what exactly is their place in the battle line. As independent characters in the SoB codex a basic Preacher costs 45 points. Up to 5 may be included in an army for a whopping 225 points for 5 assault orientated basic humans with strength 3, weapons skill 3 and leadership 7 with flak armour, eek. This is supposedly offset by initiative 4, attack dice 2. Initiative 4 only puts them on an equivalent status to most SMEQ opponents, no real advantage there when going toe to toe with power armoured power fisted chaos space marines etc. Perhaps the real value of the preacher is with the available options, yet there are few options and the only interesting one is the eviscerator giving 2 strength 6 yet initiative 1 attacks. Unlikely to be useful against anything that can hot knife and butter slice through flak armour. Yet wait , the Preachers have an invulnerable save, actually they have 2 which is markedly odd as well. They have the special rule Shield of Faith giving a 6+ invulnerable save and as standard wargear they have a rosarius giving a 4+ invulnerable save!

Obviously the rosarius save is useful yet the Shield of Faith special rule must have contributed to the points value of the basic Preacher, as does the rosarius.

The final special rule of Righteous Rage possibly pays for the fluffy ambivalence of the other rules for this mini. Add a Preacher to a squad of death cult assassins and put them in an Immolator for toasting the target prior to assault. Then you have 5 x Weapons Skill 5, Initiative 6, Strength 4, Power Weapons Attacks 2 with re-roll for any misses. Give the Preacher an eviscerator with 2 attacks and a re-roll and rosarius for survivability for a total of 145 points plus Immolator at 65 points. Becomes slightly scary as a serious total disruption and decapitation assault unit, no?

Sawing up Osgiliath

Time has been spent or wasted, depending on how it turns out - see previous posts on the Steel Legion Mortar squad's bases. Some nice stone work has been extracted from the ruins of Osgiliath and made into walls protecting the mortar squad. Just decoration of course and does not give the squad a cover save of any sort unless behind real and agreed cover. Some liquid green stuff has been used to vary the bases from the usual gravel, flock finish. Work on the green stuff hand for the loader has proved more time consuming than anticipated but is probably nearly there. And the Bob Olley veterans have been examined again, perhaps 2 of them to get special weapons from a forgeworld Death Corps resin sprue.

The Sisters of Battle have not been forgotten as the real reason for acquiring the Osgiliath ruins was to enhance the jump pack Sister of Battle bases. And the last squads heavy flamer has been ordered from GW.

The prices on ebay are bonkers at the moment with steel legion and sisters minis advertised with steeply inflated p&p charges which along with unrealistic start bids ramp up the total cost to either within a few pence of the GW price of a new mini or in some cases beyond the price new from GW. It is all crazy.