More Crimson Fists

The first Crimson Fist Space Marine that I painted here was by way of a test mini. Now I've got enough done for a squad of five plus Pedro Cantor, the Crimson Fist Chapter Master.

I used pretty much the same method as before, but I did add some extra shading with a mix of black and blue ink, slightly watered down, and carefully run into the shadows.  I also added some extra metallic detailing on the backpack, mostly to add a bit of colour interest. 

I've also applied transfers from an old sheet I found. I rarely use transfers, and have poor experience of them on Space Marines shoulder pads. Following YouTube suggestions I invested in some Microset and Microsol, recommended to get the best out of water slide transfers. 

Well, that helped, but after several coats of Microsol the transfers were a bit 'battle-scared'.  I wanted the symbol to be on a yellow background in any case, so out with the fine brushes and I ended up painting over the transfers.  Whilst not a great result, it'll do.  I suspect that if I ever get around to painting later versions of Space Marines with their larger shoulder pads, the transfers will go on better. 

Once done, the whole lot was sealed when I matt varnished the minis.

I chose yellow for the eyes rather than green, and added weapon glyphs on the shoulder pads too.  Back in the day, Marines had a smaller symbol below the chapter symbol to show what weapon they were equipped with (just in case you couldn't see).  This is a nice idea, but the symbols in the Rogue Trader book don't cover all options, egregiously they don't even cover the options available in the RTB01 box.  I did simplify things a bit, it's supposed to be a circle with a vertical line, I made do with just a dot.

I also added a bit of 'graffiti'.  The original illustrations of Space Marines show them with insignia, kill markings and mottos painted on their armour, so I went with a couple of examples.

Pedro Cantor with one third of his remaining chapter

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Cantor with the infamous 'Cantor Crush' power fist

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Once again, a fun project.  The faffing around with the transfers meant it took a lot longer than I wanted though, but at least I'll know what to do next time.  I may add some extra details; in particular, I'd like something fancy on Cantor's right shoulder pad.  The rulebook has a nice looking veteran mark, perhaps that would do?  I did try a wreath around the fist symbol, but it looked awful, so I painted over it.

BTW, I have a new phone, so the photos show truer colours, compare the marines above with the post of the original one.  I'm still learning how to get the best out of it, but it should improve the quality of the pictures. 

Deadzone Birthday Bash

T'Other One is celebrating ' a significant birthday' and suggested a four player game of Deadzone to celebrate. Since we had a six player game of Kings of War for his Stag Do, this seemed a fairly normal request. 

He set up his magnificent terrain in advance, and had even pre selected four strike teams of about 130 points each.  I had Forge Fathers and Grim had Enforcers, working together as 'Team Uninfected', while T'Other One and Andy had two Plague teams.

The Battlefield from the Plague end

and from Team Uninfected's end

We played one of the scenarios from a second edition supplement, where a 4 by 4 central area contained high value Victory Point assets.  This was my first go at the new third edition.  There aren't many changes, it seems to be more of a tidy up of the rules.  One change is the new line of sight rules.  Rather than the previous editions LoS rule of simply needing to see any part of a model, the rule is now that a model is considered to occupy a cylinder the size of its base and extending up to about head level.  This sounds complex, but we found it very easy to apply in play, and it was relevant on several occasions. 

The Plague led the early part of the game, quickly gaining victory points for possessing smaller assets outside the central area.  Their faster move gave them the edge.  Team uninfected decided to make the most of their superior shooting, and moved to higher ground, hoping to dominate the battlefield from above.

The Plague advance towards the central objectives

Team Uninfected's shooting began to take a toll on the Plague forces, despite this they held the central area.  The Plague were now gaining Victory Points from objectives, while Team uninfected were mostly getting theirs from taking out the Plague.

End Game - The Plague attempt to hold on to objectives while Team Uninfected try to knock them off.

At the end Team Uninfected had the required 28 Victory Points, while the Plague had 26 (I think), so a narrow victory to Team uninfected.

Some highlights of the game included my missile Launcher armed Steel Warrior taking out a rampaging Murderbird with an amazingly accurate shot and the plucky Assault Enforcer holding up the Plague Burster on one of the 4VP assets, preventing the Plague gaining those important points in the last turn.

MVP was probably the Stage 2 who took everything Team Uninfected could throw at it and shrugged it off (helped by the Tough mutation for that round).  It weathered a huge amount of fire in the last turn, but kept hold of the 2VP asset, wounded, but alive.  We named it 'Floyd' as it was sort of pink, and carried a piece of wall around on its base.

Bloody, but unbowed

Great fun, and it reminded me of why I like Deadzone.  Perhaps I need to look at what I have and rationalise my collection?  Some more up to date Strike Teams painted ready for action would be good.