Tallarn Rough Rider fixing WIP

I bought these guys years ago on eBay. It shipped from China.... didn't realize it at the time, so I have a strong suspicion that I inadvertently bought fakes. That said, the molds are good, and didn't require too much fixing.

The big place these guys did need was their lances. Plastic lances are just bent and look like crap. I had a bunch of brass rod lying around for pinning figs, but it looked perfect to replace the lances. With some micro drills in hand, I fixed 2 of the lances on these guys. Only 1 of them needed the front of the lance fixed. The other guy required BOTH parts in front and behind his hand repaired. Resin is a double edges sword. GREAT detail... but also thing parts flex and bend. Then again, it's also easy to cut with a hobby knife, and you can always do the hot water bath to fix bent stuff..

Sarg is in the middle. He didn't need any brass but I did have to cut off some of the flash. 4 to go..

Tallarn Desert Raiders Flamer Conversions WIP

 I love my Tallarn Desert Raiders Imperial Guard Army. I will never sell it.

BUT, when GW made these guys, they decided to NOT include flamers or heavy flamers as part of the weapon loadouts.

After many ebay purchases, I have obtained quite a number of Tallarn Desert Raiders. The main box came with a Melta guy, so I have plenty of those. I also have only 2 Plasma guns, a single Grenade Launcher, and assorted heavy weapons.

BUT no flamers! Thus with all my spare time with COVID, I decided to change this with a little ingenuity. I shall explain my process below the pics. I present; 3 flamers & a heavy flamer WIP. I was encouraged by original Ogryn Conversions (here and here but they've since been rebased) and am getting more comfortable with green stuff in general.

Process Regular Flamers:

1. Purchased several flamers + 1 heavy flamer Imperial Guard bitz, including Gas Tank backpacks from ebay (pretty cheap).
2. Took 3 existing melta guns that I had purchased (the red paint job is old), and sawed off the Melta bit.
3. Also had to grind their backs a little bit to remove the head covering ends etc. to make way for the gas tank(s). Not too much is needed if you're cool with a "slouched" diagonal look to the gas tanks.
4. Took 2 flamer gas tanks, and cut them in half, carving them down so that they looked like a single tank backpack. This is to help differentiate the heavy flamer from the regular flamers on the tabletop from a distance.
5. Cut off the flamer "flame" bits from the original flamer arms and glued them onto the end of the cut down melta guns. Now the melta guns looks like flamers
6. Took 1.5mm jeweler's wire which is very flexible, and cut it down to the right length
7. Drilled shallow, roughly 1.5mm holes in the end of the gas tank as well as the bottom of the melta gun. I found the part where the other piping goes in looks logical.
8. Glued the wire into the gas tank and the melta gun
9. Hey Presto! Instant Tallarn Flamer dude

Process Heavy Flamer:

1. This guy was neat because he's actually an older missile launcher guy who was missing his missile launcher arm. I had nothing for him to do...
2. Had to grind down his shoulder a little bit and bend his holding arm, but eventually got it to a good place where it looks like he's holding the Heavy Flamer with both hands. But it's a great look
3. Grind his back a bit to accommodate the flamer tanks.
4. Glue the double gas tanks onto his back. I keep the double tanks since he's "heavy" so will need more gas, and at a distance I'll be able to easy tell he's the heavy. I'm not a HUGE fan of the heavy flamer weapon model, but that's ok. I think it would look better if it were more horizontal instead of vertical.
5. The piping almost fit, but needed a bit of hot bending, and I broke it a bit so will have to fill in with Green Stuff eventually
6. Also, since he's supposed to be holding a missile launcher against his head, I'll need to Green Stuff the side of his head to fill it out a bit. Otherwise it looks a bit flat.
7. Hey Presto! Instant Heavy Tallern Heavy Flamer dude.

Even if I don't use them in 40k which I don't really play, I could play One Page Rules Sci Fi or Kill Team.  These guys will be a great addition. I'll update once I've got the Green Stuff in place, and might have undercoated 'em.

Tallarn for FoF

Rather than buy the newest 40k, I have decided that my Tallarn force would make a great irregular force for Force on Force/Tomorrow's War.

That said, I also went out and bought a Baneblade on Ebay because I just want to have a MONSTER tank in case another sci fi rules come along that allow such a behemoth.

But anyway, also on ebay, I bought a few items that were for relative cheap, and I thought why not?

First up, when I think Tallarn, I think either Sentinels or Dune Buggies.  GW doesn't make Dune Buggies, but i-Kore Void did before they went out of business, so I picked up a couple. 
In 40k I would treat these as Sentinels, but in FoF/TW I would count them as Technicals.

These of course will require some modification.  I have several Tallarn Heavy Weapon teams available (image from ebay) that aren't going to do anything:
The gunner comes in two parts, torso and feet.  So the completed dude can act as a driver for one of the buggies.

Taking a torso and adding some Persian 28mm fig legs (also bought on ebay), would give him legs to stand on.  They will also serve as legs for my Forgeworld Tallarn Tank Commander.

 

 I will post progress of these conversions as I get them done (slowly).  Still have to finish my Warmachine stuff.

My other purchase on ebay was to buy some Rough Riders. I know what gamewise they might not be great, but this was only $10 per ForgeWorld Tallarn Rider and so I freaked out and bought 5 of them directly from China. I LOVE the look of these guys even if they aren't going to do well in 40k.  Will also probably have to replace their spears with brass rod.  Anyway, excited to paint these guys up.

Waaagh GT 2011 USS Hornet

That was an interesting tournament. It had its ups and downs. First of all, here's our venue, the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier in Alameda, CA. Awesome stuff.

No we weren't on the deck but I was able to sneak up there on Sunday to see what they had. An F-4 Phantom, an F-14 Topgun Tomcat, and ... I think a Skyhawk or a Raider. I forget which. Its at the front on the steam catapult if you can see it.

But enough of that. Down in the storage hanger, we did battle...

Battle 1: Orks.

Highlights: Playing against Orks for the 1st time. Some REALLY cool conversions and builds. This guy actually won player's army choice at the end, so I was glad I got a good up close (too close) and personal look at it. A really cool Godzilla theme. Also neat was that Orks are an even crappier shot than my IG, so it was a nice change... until they got into H2H with me.

Lowlights: Well... I wasn't as aquainted with the rules as I thought. The guy was very understanding and nice, which was cool. But it was really hard to figure out how to defeat a battlewagon with an invulnerable save and a pile of orks around it. Also hard to know how to defeat motorcycle nobs. They are just plain complicated and kind of cheesy frankly since they can put wounds on each individual model etc. etc. Either way, I got kicked to the curb.

Lessons Learned: I need more horde control? Learn the rules AND play a game or two BEFORE attending a tourney.

These squigs are in fact boyz in the buggy. Cool idea I thought, and he was true to fluff and didn't shoot them once! Also notice those accursed Nobz. I didn't know how to unload my Ogryns properly for the all important charge, so they did crap all, as did the flamer.

What happened to that lovely blob of 30 infantry?

Game 2: IG Vendetta Squadrons of Death!

Hightlight: Able to play against another Guard player so see what he was going to do. Also a nice player.

Lowlight: The entire game. This was the lowpoint of the tourney actually. The guy was nice enough although he was a bit snippy about bases. Really cool paintjobs on the Vendettas though.

My army started getting blown to crap, and I after turn 2 I sat there wondering if my poor little army that I'd spent so long painting was going to be able to do anything more interesting in this tourney than just die. It was to the point where my army took more time to setup than it did to get killed. We can't shoot, we can't assault, we can't move... If the rest of the tourney was going to be like these two games, what's the f*@&$ing point of me playing 40k? I obviously don't "get it", and never have... blahdie blahdie blah.

Lessons Learned: Don't shoot with Ogryns if you are about 4-6" inches away or you may not be able to charge if you gun the front row down. Also, after speaking with the guy afterwards, 2 Valkarie/Vendettas might be useful. Vendetta is dedicated gunship. Valkarie carries the veterans to deploy.

Holy crap! 6 Vendettas and a whole pile of melta guns!
The Ogyrns exit their burning wreck of a Chimera to shoot ripper guns at those juicy veterans. Alas they were too effective and shot them out of charge range! A good lesson there.
Oh dear. That fact that he insisted on putting lots of flame on my vendetta kind of ticked me off, but I tried to keep smiling.

Game 3: Gray Knights

Highlights: Best game of the tourney. This guy pulled me out of my funk from the 1st two games. We voted each other most fun player. Again I got blown to crap, BUT NOT TABLED. I actually make this a 6th mission for the tourney. I did not want to get tabled by ANYBODY no matter how badly a lost points wise. I look forward to playing this guy next year. I really hope I can make it. We pronounce this game "the party table" since we were both 0-2 and sure as hell weren't going to win any prizes. Just there to have fun. Oh, and my battlecannon missed and blew up my entire platoon commander. We high fived on that one as a sign of how fun the game was.

Lowlights: Well I was a bit tired, and sat down. He noticed and shouted "don't get down on me Chris!", and I realized. DON'T SIT down at a game. It lowers the whole energy level of the game. Even if you are tired, it just looks sh&@#ty.

Lessons Learned: Gamewise, was still getting used to flank moves with the sentinals and vendetta as well as how to charge with Ogyrns. They got eaten again. At least I killed his librarian. Also, terrain is really nasty for Guard. All the tables were terrain heavy and those cover saves KILLED me, since even my lascannons and battlecannons were less effective.

Ha! At least I killed 2 rhinos... SUCK IT!

Day 2. Game 4: Blood Angels

Highlights: The guy was really nice. He voted me his move fun player, which I appreciated. My Ogryns were running defense in the back row ready to try to intercept/counter charge an assault marine deep strike. They were too far from the objective though.

Lowlights: I think he took the true line of sight thing WAY too far shooting through 10 jungles and 3 units to try to hit my LR. Yes you can do it, but come on... He took me to the cleaners as was becoming usual (but DIDN'T table me. SUCK IT!) I still don't know how to handle Assault marines. Especially super hero Blood Angels. I also couldn't hit crap. I think I killed all of 1 unit the whole game. Things were threatening to repeat themselves from the previous day. But I kept smiling, because I'm here to have fun...... kind of.

Lessons Learned: Instead of holding my blob back where they would die, I decided to run them forward. This actually worked well.. except that his assault marines then dropped in behind them.... So perhaps not for this game.

Final Game: Eldar

Highlights: This was a fun game actually. The guy and I had met on Saturday and were looking forward to gaming against each other. Sure enough I was 0-4, he was 0-1-3 so we were fighting for the bottom. I'm happy about this one because I was able to pull off a TIE. The mission was to get your scoring units into the opponent's deployment zone.

Lowlights: The guy was a little silly with the true line of sight, but not really any lowlights. I felt like I had a chance with this game, and that really helps to make it more fun. Nothing sucks more than thinking that your army has no chance. My luck was SHITE this game, but that's ok.

Lessons Learned: Eyes on the prize. My blob just said screw it, and ran forward. The order "Move move move!" REALLY helps with this. My lascannons sat on a hill and hit zero. My vendetta swooped in, and tried to pick up both the senior and junior command squads to take them to the deployment zone for a win. The other guy only had a couple of scoring units so it was fairly easy for my Ogyrns to run interception (Which they ROCKED at). This guy was my skill level. Although his army wasn't painted totally, I voted him my player's choice because I'd already voted on my favourite player.

The blob moves into cover. They keep running. Next time I'm not taking any heavy weapons with a blob. Maybe I won't do a blob again. Time to paint up those Chimeras and melta guns...

Conga line of Ogryns running interception on those eldar. We sent that Warlock packing. Go Ogyrns. Pity their Chimera got a track blown off in the opening turn.

Junior command squad move move moves for the tie! The vendetta couldn't move after its engine got blown off, so it couldn't pick up the senior/junior command squads and fly them into the deployment zone.

Really nice guy's Black Templar army. Met him at the beginning. I didn't get to play against them, but if I ever get to paint my BT, I'll look for him.

Waaagh GT 2011

Ok, so tomorrow will be the Waaagh GT.

I couldn't play last year because of work issues, and my army wasn't ready anyway.

This year I finished the army back in February so we're good there, and work has been lighter so I can make it...

Anyway, since I don't attend tourney's like this EVER, I have 4 things to accomplish:

1. Win most fun player
2. Win best painted army (or maybe coolest theme since there are some REALLY good armies in there)
3. Get good idea of IG strategy that isn't just sit in gun line and blast away hoping to kill the inevitable space marine charge in a land raider before they reduce my boys to jelly.
4. Defeat a player who is about my skill level or better.
5. Ok 5. Re-aquaint myself with the 40k rules so I know what I'm doing and won't look like a doofus.

I'll take lots of pictures of the aircraft carrier etc. That reminds me, I have to see the deck of that thing this weekend.

Tallarn 110th Redux: Battlegroup Ptolemy.

So I've finally rebased all my Tallarns to actually be in a desert as they should be. Some grey rocks chucked in for a bit of variety...

Anyway, I now have 1850 (and a little extra) points to take with me to the tourney later this year. So now I can focus on other stuff (such as Warmachine which my buddy and I just got into among other things).

But either way, here they all are, with redone bases and a bad attitude...

A couple of things to note.
1) The Ogyrns now have official GW bases, so I won't get docked for that!
2) Yes that is a commisar all his lonesome. He will be leading the 3 squads of infantry with attached Autocannons. You will also notice there is only 1 vox between the three of them for that reason.
3) The mortars are there in the pic as well as a partial squad that was left over. I wanted them to be in the picture just 'cause they still look awesome.
4) That squad under the Vendetta is a grenadier veteran unit as you can see from its 3 meltaguns and pack 'o explosives (that little guy single handedly took out a Chaos Soul Grinder back at my last tourney)
5) Why battlegroup Ptolemy? Well, he was one of Alexander's Generals who took over Egypt after Alexander's death. He fought in the desert and prevailed, so I figured why not name my commander after him. Besides, Ghengis Khan didn't seem to fit a guy with a comb-over...

Vendetta, Ogryn Chimera, Tallarn Sentinel Done

Its about time, but I have FINALLY finished the Vendetta, the Ogryn Flamer Turret and the Tallarn Sentinel Scout. I'm really happy with all of them. The Vendetta took a LONG time to do, but the outcome is really good I think. Although I still have to dull coat everything (except the canopy), I figured I'd post since I can now start on the easier stuff for the Tallarn 110th Battlegroup. I didn't bother painting the other weapon loads just yet since I'm only going to use the Vendetta, but when I decide to use 'em I'll finish them off. The priority is to get everything ready in time for the tourney, and so I can start painting something else...

Probably the hardest part of the Vendetta was the camo scheme. I had to highlight and shade each panel by hand. Next time I'll do a spray job (when I get a spray set). Something cool to note, the canopy also has the camo scheme going up onto it. The base is a bit meh, but since it matches the rest of the army, I had to do it. When I start my Black Templar army, I'll start doing better bases.

Had to give 'em the fighter pilot's helmets even if this is an Apache/Blackhawk type attack transport. And I even named them Cougar and Merlin. Maverick and Goose was just lame (and their helmet's weren't as interesting). I have removed the magnetized twin linked lascannon so you can see the names better. You can also see the screws painted onto the turbine fans to show that they are turning, although now that I think about it, they should be a blur right now..... oops.

This shot gives you a good view of the underside. I felt like WW2 British fighters were the way to go, so underside=sky blue, topside=camo. Also get a good shot of the magnetized twin linked lascannons.

Next up is the Sentinel. Quite a nice Forge World model. So now I have 2 scouts, and 2 heavies. These guys will flank along with the Vendetta with the help of the Astropath..

The multilaser is magnetized, so can be pulled off and replaced with a lascannon if I so choose. For now, the multilaser stays..

Forge World did such a nice job of the detail on the driver, that I felt it was necessary to swing his door open so you could see him better. I have no idea why the door is open... Maybe he needed a better look, or perhaps it got blown open by mistake. Either it took some very careful exacto knife work to cut it out and glue it on properly.

And last up is my favourite conversion, the Ogryn Heavy Flamer turret. He came out GREAT, and he can even rotate, as well as be pulled off for easy returning of the chimera to a regular vehicle. I'm still debating whether to give him a hose leading from the gun down into the Chimera, or have some kind of tank next to him, but for now he'll do.

Next up will the rest of the Tallarn troopers to fill out the platoon of 30, the commissar, and the Astropath. After this lot, that should be easy...