Genestealer Cult - Forgeworld Rapier!

Because Warhammer 40K has been around a long time, at least in the world of miniatures wargaming systems, there are a lot of "oldie but goodie" units out there that you don't see a lot on the tabletop but may hold a nostalgic place in many long-time gamers' hearts. One of these for me has been the Rapier, currently known as the Rapier Laser Destroyer. Until recently you could pick one of these up on the Forgeworld site for your Astra Militarum army, but it seems to have disappeared recently, though you can still get a Space Marine version for Horus Heresy forces.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Red Gobbo!

As we come to the end of the year, I haven't had time to start putting together all of my thoughts to do a full "year in review" yet. I've sort of been running from one painting competition to another for the past several months, and this week is no different. The local Warhammer Store is running a Red Gobbo painting competition tomorrow and I finally got my little critter painted - honestly this is one of the few times I almost, kinda, sort of, painted it according to the instructions. Of course, I had to go a little crazy on the snow on the basing and all that, but hey, this is me we're talking about.

So to you and yours, have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Joyous New Year!!!

Genestealer Cult - Neophyte Hybrid Necromunda Conversions

For my Genestealer Cult force, I wanted to have a bit of variety in the units. This can help with backstory, and from a more practical standpoint, it can help me keep track of units on the table. I always have to mark my historical wargaming figures with distinguishing marks - especially infantry - to keep individual squads / platoons apart. Fortunately, in Warhammer 40K you can make up your own force and distinguish squads however you prefer. As at its heart, the Genestealer Cult army is, well, a Cult, I wanted to have a few figures that looked the part. Fortunately Games Workshop makes a full range of figures for the game Necromunda that has several figures that fit the bill quite nicely.

Genestealer Cult - Brood Brothers Reinforcements

Over the last few weeks in the background I've been working on a few new models for my Brood Brothers detachment for the Genestealer Cult. I started with the Forgeworld resin Cadian Command HQ Squad and for the most part performed a head swap on them. I went a bit further with the officer as I wanted to retain the field telephone - so carving out that resin took a fair amount of work.

Genestealer Cult - Converted Sanctus

One of the new units available in the current edition of Warhammer 40K to the Genestealer Cult army is the Sanctus. Unlike the Locus, which serves more as an elite bodyguard for high ranking cultists, the Sanctus is an assassin. Capable of being armed with either a bio-dagger or sniper rifle, the unit can fill two very different niches in any force. I have a copy of the standard Sanctus available from Games Workshop, and like most of their new releases it is a great miniature. However, its pose seems to lend itself more to being armed with the bio-dagger rather than the sniper rifle. An individual online posted a great conversion of a Kroot miniature to serve as a sniper Sanctus and thus inspired I decided to make my own.

Cult Reinforcements - Nexos and Standard Bearer

Now that Armies on Parade is over, I've been able to get back to painting up some more miniatures for the cult. I started by finishing up a couple that I'd hoped to get done for my Armies on Parade force, the Nexos and the Standard Bearer for one of my Brood Brothers command squads, but now I'll just have to use them for next year's entry - more on that in what will likely be several blogs worth of material.

Armies on Parade - The Uprising!

I found out that Games Workshop holds an annual Armies on Parade event a couple of months ago. As I've been working a lot on my Genestealer cult, I figured that this would be a fun opportunity to get the army out on the table and see how it fared against the competition. I had several ideas for a scenic base, but ultimately realized that I just didn't have the time to completely build something new from scratch. I'd already been building several of the ruined plastic buildings available from GW, and I ended up picking up a Forgeworld Realm of Battle 2' x 2' base (the Cityscape Generatorium Sector) figuring with a little work I could make it look pretty good.

Genestealer Cult Baneblade - In Detail

My previous article detailing the new Baneblade I've just finished up for my Genestealer cult spent a fair amount of time going through the history of the vehicle in Warhammer 40K, but less time going through the construction and painting process I used on my example. Given the size and scale of the subject (puns intended) I wanted to take a step back and provide some details on how I constructed and painted the beast. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any "in progress" photos, but will provide material lists and tips for building your own!

Genestealer Cult... They Have a Baneblade...

The Baneblade - an improbably large super heavy tank fielded by the Imperial Guard has been one of my favorite Warhammer 40K vehicles since I first saw the plans for one in late 1990. As a Brood Brothers detachment, my Genestealer Cult army has access to these behemoths, so I figured at some point I absolutely had to paint one up for the cult. Of course, this month's theme for the painting contest at the local Warhammer store is "monster or machine," so I figured a "monster of a machine" would work just fine!

Genestealer Cult - The Heavy Hitters

Games of Warhammer 40K - despite its futuristic overtones - often come down to hand to hand combat. Most armies have dedicated specialists who excel in this sort of close quarters fighting, and the Genestealer cults have a few fun choices. I've got a couple of these painted up so far. One is a standard troops choice, which the other is an elite choice, in this case supplemented by an HQ choice.

40K Genestealer Cult - Brood Brothers!

One of the standard troops options for the Genestealer cult is a unit called "Brood Brothers." These are standard Astra Militarum infantry that have been infiltrated by the Cult and defect once the grand uprising begins. You can also take certain standard Astra Militarum units as a separate detachment for your Battle Forged force, but I'll detail some of those options in a later blog entry.

Genestealer Cult - First Vehicles!

The new Genestealer Cult forces for Warhammer 40K can take a variety of vehicles as a part of the core Codex list. Some of these are new and unique to the Genestealer Cult army list, and I plan on detailing those in a future blog entry. Others, however, represent Astra Militarum (AKA "Imperial Guard") forces which have either been infiltrated or co-opted by the cult. I'm working on several vehicles of this type, and have a couple done so far.

New Army! Warhammer 40K Genestealer Cult

Time has gotten away from me this year, but I have been working on several projects rather than posting. One of them is my first Warhammer 40K army quite frankly in many, many years. My son has been playing on again off again, so I thought I'd get my own force going. The 40K skirmish level game Kill Team is also a great catalyst (or gateway drug if you prefer) to explore and examine new forces and armies without the commitment required to field a full 40K force.

Fielding Schweres Panzerjäger-Regiment 656 in Flames of War

As promised last week, the article detailing ways to field Schweres Panzerjäger-Regiment 656 in Flames of War is now up on their website! There has been a lot of recent discussion online about the flexibility inherent in the V4 lists, and how that can lead to some ahistorical combinations, like Panthers in North Africa for example. Hopefully this article will show the opposite, how that flexibility can yield some 100% historical lists as well.

Ferdinands at Kursk!

An article I wrote detailing the history of Schweres Panzerjäger-Regiment 656 has just been published on the Flames of War main website in support of the new Ghost Panzers book. This article goes into the background of the unit and how it was fielded during the Kursk offensive is one of two on the unit I've submitted at this point. If you read to the end, next week an article detailing how to accurately field the unit in Flames of War is on tap!

Battlefront Updates Ferdinand Assembly Instructions

With the latest update to the website, Battlefront has updated the assembly instructions for the new Ferdinand Tank-hunter Platoon box (GBX127). The box art, of course, still features the original model and retains the circular hatch error, but had the rectangular hatch attached correctly. Hopefully at some point they can go back and re-master those metal tracks...

Battlefront's New Ferdinand - A Design Study

I received my new Ferdinands in the mail yesterday, and imagine my surprise to discover that the whole resin miniature as well as the tracks had been re-done for this new release. I chalk the confusion up to the fact that if you look at the box art on the new Ferdinand Tank Hunter Platoon box (GBX127), the cover art is all of the original GE131 Ferdinand miniature. In this blog I'll go through the details of the new miniature as compared to the old miniature, line drawings of the real thing, and photographs of the Ferdinand in action at Kursk. In many ways the new miniature is an improvement over the old miniature, but there are some notable gaps!

The Front

So let's start right up front looking at the forward view of both miniatures as compared to a line drawing. In the image below, the new miniature is on the left, the old miniature is in the middle, and the line drawing is at right. It's immediately apparent that there have been a lot of changes. The rivet count on the new miniature is correct - the old miniature had too many bolts on the front armor - though the side angles look a tad closer to the real thing on the old miniature. The track width is also more proportional on the new version, and it includes the headlights. The mantlet width of the new miniature is also better.

Modeling Schweres Panzerjäger-Regiment 656 in Flames of War

It's been a while since I posted. Unfortunately some non-miniatures wargaming work and a few major holidays have been impacting my hobby time, but I'm hoping to get back on track here in the next few weeks as a couple of major obligations move to the rear-view mirror. With the release of Ghost Panzers, the V4 mid-war German lists are largely complete at this point. While I'm still working on my Stalingrad force, with the release of the Kursk books, I can finally (FINALLY) get around to doing a force I've wanted to field properly for years - Schweres Panzerjäger-Regiment 656!

Unless you've been under a rock, you'll know that the Ferdinand / Elefant is one of my favorite German oddball AFVs. I even wrote up the late war list and modeling guide that were published by Battlefront for Flames of War V3. That being said, truly fielding a representative 656th force in V3 using the published lists was difficult - and impractical given the high point cost of the Ferdinand tank destroyer itself. There are a lot of ways to get the unit on the tabletop now in V4 using a combination of Ghost Panzers and Iron Cross lists, and I'll likely be fielding mine as support for a Grenadier list, though with the available command cards, there are a lot of other options.

In this particular article I'll go through the various fun and unique vehicles that comprised the unit and how they can be represented in Flames of War. Fortunately all of them are already available through Battlefront's existing line of miniatures, but many of them could use a little extra detailing to make them better represent the unit as it fought at Kursk.