Alien handmaiden (Crooked Dice)

So it finally happened:

last Saturday night we have finally managed to play Call of Cthulhu role-playing game! 🦑

The last time I was running CoC was maybe like 10 years ago? But my investigators were playing much, much formerly. It was kinda big success to gather old friends together to play the game after such a long time although adjusting date took us like 2 months. Writing a scenario was fun itself (started last November) and I'm glad after 4-5 hours of playing there's one more session ahead.

Anyway while waiting for the session and having recent Sherman crossed off the list, I decided to paint something different before starting another Bolt Action thing. Reaching deep into bucket of shame I've found alien thing from Crooked Dice range I got quite a long tome ago together with some cultists. I never had any idea for this guy but coming RPG session put me into mood for painting something from eldritch horror range. Plus it turned out it was sculpted by my buddy from Chest of Colors times: Mr Bug Man. While assembling the model I realised it had some parts very similar to alien drop pod I from from Nav a while back. Very organic and disturbing piece!

As for painting I used some organic, natural tones hoping to make it look somehow believable. Don't think my investigators will meet somethink like this anytime soon (or anytime at all...) but I am really happy this beautie got the colors. And I am pretty sure Call of Cthulhu wide range of miniatures will get own shelf as soon as new display case arrives...

And below: eldritch horror about to eat Dagon cultists and investigators in perilous Dunwich outskirts:

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!! 🤘🏻

Sherman M4A2(76)W

Having some more foot soliders prepared for winter, the time has come to provide some heavy support for the boys. I always wanted my GIs to have heavy tank support and recently I've found mint condition model on second hand market. Plus I needed the second entry for the painting contest so apparently once again Allmighty Cosmos has been guiding me 😵‍💫

Although it's another tank from Sherman family in the display case, painting this one was kinda challenging, because as it turned out - I run out of all olive paints and the only one I could use was grassy light green tone. It's been mixed with some browns and violet and all in all it turned out fine. It's clearly brighter then it's older brothers: M4A3 Sherman 105 mm howitzer or M4 Sherman T34 Calliope but I think I like such "pale" tone even better: makes bigger contrast on the battlefield and exposes mud, dirt or oil streaks.

Last weekend the model was brought to gaming-bunker for some field tests. It survived (yaaay... 🙄) but didn't perform anyhow spectacular. I know, it's Bolt Action so some bad luck with dice rolling can obliterate the best battle plan, yet I was hoping for little more. On the other hand I was facing Soviet army swarm without armored platoon, so it's cannon didn't get proper target: the meat chopper was much more effective. Oh well, it's nothing new 250 points vehicle for 1000 points game is just too expensive so I think it might re-appear in larger battle.

 

So here're the pictures and hope you like it:

And below Mr and Mrs Flatnoses taking Sunday ride:

US infantry (winter war) #5

The entry for 25 mm - 28 mm infantry unit category for ongoing painting contest just left hobby station. As menioned before - I am more then satisfied with new US winter infantry box, even despite the fact painting the same coats was simply boring. 

What you see below is the basic United States infantry unit I field in Bolt Action v3: no assault weapon, no Browning - just 12 rifles to maximize army's special rule. In fact I am trying no to leave deployment zone without 3 solid units of grunts, so sooner or later you might expect to see more of greatcoats and repainted metal models painted earier. After all not all soliders got proper winter clothing on time for Battle of the Bulge...

The next piece which just arrived on painting station is M4A2(76)W tank. I know most tanks in US disposal ale quite similar, but for this one I chose early hull to make it stand out and of course - this one is equipped heavy anti tank gun, which should make enemy think twice before entering into my fire zone...

The unit was painted for winter campaign, so I tried to take some shots using proper backdrop. Must admit I've found taking photos with such a bright background quite pain in the ass: the camera couldn't catch proper white balance which was kinda weird since most of enviroment is white 🙄

To show the difference I took photos of the same unit also in standard grassy land and straight on the painting desk - as you can see models' colors are different despite it's the same camera, settings and lighting. Taking pics it probably most frustrating element of this silly hobby...

Anyway here they are and I am off to assemble and undercoat zze tank!

See? Same settings, different background and models instantly look better... 🙄

And here're the boys led to battle by the command squad painted recently:

Gorkamorka ork nob

I was actually starting preparing some models for the upcoming historical painting contest but because cutting parts off the frames and assembling winter US infantry is pretty boring, I decided to work on little something, which has been giving me sad look from the back rank of display case for quite a long time... 🥺

There's a story behind this one - just like behind everthing...
A solid while back, when we were still into Necromunda, I was trying to get and paint basic gang for Gorkamorka. The game was dead for a long time already but those days some models were still available on second hand market. I remeber I managed to get placcy ork trukk (with wrecker ball and metal ram) and ork nob - or whatever it's name was in Gorkamorka. Joy, oh joy!!!

Really couldn't wait to strip the paint and start working to give old models new shine 🤗

Sadly back days I used different stuff to wash models and as it turned out shortly - this time I used the wrong one. Plastic trukk got bended and kinda melted, leaving only metal parts stripped properly. The vehicle got ruined so it became reservoir of conversion bits for further projects. Like Dakka-Dakka bot... 🤖

Since there was no Gorkamorka gang anymore and I still had cool model, all I could do was painting it - which I did. I've never played any sort of greenskins so it got display plinth, got some painting and sadly - got forgotten shortly after. Until now. As veteran painter and gamer I am kinda ashamed such a cool sculpt didn't get proper painting so after it's been re-discovered last week decision was made to fix that. Heil Gork and Mork!

It's Gorkamorka range so it got desert themed base and rather bright paintwork contrary to the previous version. In fact it's the second model from GM ork line I painted so far - the previous was sacrificed on COFC mini exchange. Until now I haven't found any practical use for keeping greenskin model so Mister Nob became a souvenir (like Necromunda Cawdor juve), only this time - airplane, or rather: fighta-bommer, goes to the other corner of the planet.

Hope it arrives safe and sound and recipient likes this one.

Scale shot: Dakka-Dakka bot is still the largest orky model I painted so far 😜

And here's the previous, Necronunda styled paintwork (the one and only survived picture I found on the bloggy):

PS. For obvious reason the post has been prepared earlier, but it's been released after the parcel reached the destination. Orkz like surprizezzz 😁

US infantry (winter war) #4

It's winter here (or rather: supposed to be) so it seems to be good idea to paint some more infantrymen for my Bolt Action winter themed force. Especially there's XXIX edition of painting contest on strategie.net forum running, which always works motivating. After dealing with Slaanesh force for Warhammer Fantasy painting some olive green was just breath of fresh air. Plus it's good warm up before painting ordinary G.I.s.

The proper entry for the contest is plastic infantry I got at the beginning of the year. For a long time I prefered metal models over plastics, but Warlord did really great job on this set. I especially like faces which are way better sculpted then faces of most Bolt Action models I have. But last year I also got US headquarters set on Road to Berlin 2025 which is supposed to command winter Bastogne offensive and which you can see below.

Painting scheme is well tested color combo backed with Citadel artifical snow. That white goo makes great contrast to olive and green and therefore infantry looks just more interesting on battlefield. I added magnets to all freshly painted models from Bolt Action range to makes transporting models easier and safer - it's the tip I spotted on Road to Berlin events - definitely recommended!

The HQ set contains officer, medic and forward observer. There's always something to do for additional NCO so there's never enough of them. Medic on the other hand has never paid off during the game but since I painted one quite a long time ago - now I can field a team. Not mentioning the fact model with stretches looks just so cool! Dude with radio is the observer - not sure I am brave enough to call an airstrike on the battlefield, but it can surely work also as an artillery spotter - indirect weapons are always good choice.  The one with white helmet is old spotter from Black Tree Designs range but with head swapped for plastic. It's the third time I am painting this specific model and help me Satan - the last one.

Right - time to start painting some cannon fodder for Battle of the Bulge campaign... 🫡  

As you can see spotter brought dark grimoire instead of military maps:

...which allowed the team to beat gravity!