Restructuring and Rebuilding the Aquamarines (long and pic heavy) [Draft]

I started writing this post in 2013 and worked on it little by little over the years. 

[Chart done, in progress, and want]

A Landraider re-build with second paint job circa 1998
(click on image to enlarge)

As I have mentioned before, I started playing 40K back in Rogue Trader days--The year it came out in the US actually. I think I played a friend's Ork army in my first game. Soon after, I started collecting my own figures.

Back then for $20 you could buy a boxed set of 30 Space Marines, a boxed set of 3 Rhinos, or a boxed set of 2 Land Raiders! That was $60 for an entire army !! Yeah, yeah, inflation you say. According to DollarTimes inflation calculator, $60 in 1987 is equivalent to $124.67 in 2013.  Just for giggles, let's do a comparison. In 1987 I paid $125 (in 2013 dollars). For that, I got 30 Tactical Marines, 3 Rhinos and 2 Land Raiders. Today those models will run you... $380.25!

Over the years, I have painted a fair amount of Aquamarines-- Models pained in different styles and different levels of proficiency. Every time I got back in the hobby and started painting, much of my efforts were spent in re-painting and reorganizing models to the current codex. Still, I never managed to get a large force painted.

A long time ago, I made a rule for myself. The intention was to not assemble figures until I was ready to paint them... something I have mostly kept true. However, I have never given myself a restriction to buying models--There are only external limits like my pocket book and my wife.

My most recent attempt at reviving the Aquamarines (around 2009), was creating banner art in CorelDraw, and then adding a painterly-style shading in Photoshop. I finished the Squad banners and most of the character banners, but the chapter banner was left incomplete.

Chapter Banner WiP
(click on image to enlarge)

At the moment, I am still unable to field a cohesive and painted force. This post is the first step in achieving that goal. I am taking a que from Admiral Drax by creating a spread sheet (I love spreadsheets!) of all the models and plotting the stage that each one is in.

BFG Strike Cruiser Carrier

Been in a bit of a slump of late, and I've had a difficult time getting my hobby mojo back. 

About a week ago, I managed to get a little bit of hobby time in. I filled the weapon batteries off of a Strike Cruiser so I could convert it to a carrier. Here is a mock-up of my first attempt.

The white part on the left is 2 trimmed "I" beams glued to a thin piece of plasticard. The grey part on the right is the cut down upper assembly of an old school las pistol.

BFG BatRep – Space Marines vs Imperial Navy 500 pts

Battlefleet Gothic returns to family game night. 

Deathbot, Mrs Zorcon, and I played a rematch of our last game. Not surprisingly, this game took place over a month ago and I am just setting down to write up the BatRep.

SET UP:

Once again we play the intro scenario 'Cruiser Clash' at 500 points. This time instead of the game box, I used asteroids to mark off the play field boundaries. This will become an issue later in the game.

FLEET LISTS:

We used the same lists.

IMPERIAL NAVY (285pts) - Deathbot

• Tyrant Cruiser
• Cobra Destroyer Squadron x3

IMPERIAL NAVY (215pts) - Mrs Zorcon

• Dauntless Light Cruiser
• Sword Frigate Squadron x3

SPACE MARINES (500pts) - Zorcon

• Strike Cruiser
• Strike Cruiser
• Gladius Frigate Squadron x2
• Hunter Destroyer Squadron x3 

TURN 1:

Everyone opened up the game advancing towards the middle (red arrows) and launching ordinance (white arrows). The Imperial Navy (IN) missed the mark with their torpedoes, but the Space Marines (SM) caused some minor damage with their Assault Boats.

TURN 2:

By this stage, everyone is in firing range. For the first time between this and last game, I split up my Strike Cruisers--This will turn out to be a mistake.

TURN 3:

With ships crisscrossing each other, the IN Dauntless class light cruiser is destroyed by massed weapon batteries and attack craft.

TURN 4:

As the IN sends its main ship away from the rest of the fleet, the SM fleet prepares to surround the lone enemy vessel.

TURN 5:

The SM fleet circles around to attack the IN capitol ship.The mass of blast markers in the lower left shows evidence of the killing blow to the IN Tyrant class cruiser. The explosion took out one of the SM Gladius Frigates.

TURN 6:

Now that both capitol ships are destroyed, the 2 IN escort squadrons regroup and cause heavy damage to one of the SM strike cruisers.

TURN 7:

Here is were 2 previous mistakes come to pass at the same time--Separating my strike cruisers and not clearly defining the battle zone. The heavily damaged strike cruiser captain orders the ship 'all ahead full'. In an unexpected burst of speed, the ship ends up at the edge of the field of battle. Since I did not clarify at the beginning of the game where the boarder actually is (at the edge of the asteroid's base or at the center of the post), it was unclear id the strike cruiser was out of play or not. 

We chose the best way to resolve the situation was to roll a die; 1-3 the ship stays in play, 4-6 it is off the board. I rolled a 4 and lost the ship.

TURN 8:

With renewed morale, the IN went on offence, attempting to repeat its previous efforts. They made a valiant effort to damage the remaining strike cruiser, but the SM fleet was ready and counter attacked. After the end of the turd, the strike cruiser took a few points of damage, but not enough to cripple it. Unfortunately, the IN lost another ship, a Cobra class destroyer.

Game ends with another SM victory. The lad and Mrs are really getting the hang of the game (and I am re-familiarizing myself with the rules). In the next game we will introduce celestial phenomena (terrain).

BFG BatRep – Space Marines vs Imperial Navy 500 pts

More Battlefleet Gothic!! Again I am almost a month late posting a BatRep!

The other day Deathbot wanted to play 40k, but I didn't think we had time. I suggested a game he had never played, but within the same universe... Battlefleet Gothic. He loved the idea. So much so, he talked Mrs Zorcon into playing too!

SET UP:

I broke out my felt starscape, using the game boxes to mark off one board edge to keep the play area manageable.  We played the intro scenario 'Cruiser Clash'. As the name says, the the scenario is meant to be cruisers only, but we included escorts too.

FLEET LISTS:

Each side had 500 points. I decided to give each side 2 cruisers and 2 escort squadrons.

IMPERIAL NAVY (285pts) - Deathbot

• Tyrant Cruiser
• Cobra Destroyer Squadron x3

IMPERIAL NAVY (215pts) - Mrs Zorcon

• Dauntless Light Cruiser
• Sword Frigate Squadron x3

SPACE MARINES (500pts) - Zorcon

• Strike Cruiser
• Strike Cruiser
• Gladius Frigate Squadron x2
• Hunter Destroyer Squadron x3 

TURN 1:

Image terminated by Inquisitor Nicodemus from the source of transmission.

TURN 2:

This was taken after the Imperial Navy's turn, before the Space Marine's turn. Both sides fired torpedoes, forcing the opponent to take evasive maneuvers. 

TURN 3

Image terminated by Inquisitor Nicodemus from the source of transmission.

This is the only image of turn 3 to make it through the communication black out. It shows the miraculous luck of the Imperial Navy's Dauntless Cruiser as 4 waves of Thunderhawks and a torpedo salvo 6 strong slam into its hull.

TURN 4:

The Imperials lost their capitol ship (taking out a Space Marine Gladius Frigate in the explosion), and the light cruiser was crippled. Morale was lost and the Imperial Navy surrendered.

The game took about 2.5 hours--Re-learning and teaching the rules added quite a bit of time. Reguardless, Deathbot, and surprisingly Mrs Zorcon had a good time.  So much so, we have already planned the next game!

BFG Grey Knight Allies Showcase

My Battlefleet Gothic mojo is in full gear!

Way back in 2010 I nearly completed these two Strike Cruisers. Today, I just finished them, along with their Attack Craft.

These will be part of an Inquisitorial detachment to my Aquamarine Fleet... I am working on those ships too!

Aquamarine (Pre) Progress Chart

Happy Holidays! I wish the best for you and yours!

It has been quite a while since I have been able to paint or post much of anything. My wife has gone back to the hospital. Life around the Zorcon household is very stressful and unpredictable. That being said, I have taken some time to get a few posts in before the end of the year: My son and I played the largest game of 40K I have played since 2ed (1500 points); Another post will showcase giants; Plus (hopefully) a few other posts of some of my collections.

Now on to this post. I do not have my Aquamarines organized into squads, let alone a playable army--There have been too many repaints, rule changes, poor decisions over the years. What I did do was take inventory.

The bulk of my figures/models are from 1e 40K. I do have some from 2e, even fewer from 3e, and only a hand full from 4-5e.

Because of the varied load outs, and having a fairly large bitz box, I did not list every weapon combination. The only things I specified were the Mk of the vehicles and the roll of the troops.

325 Space Marines (about 1/3 RT001)
          2      Commanders
          5      Librarians
          10    Chaplains
          2      Apothecaries
          18    Techmarines
          22    Sergeants
          174  Marines
          34    Heavy Weapons
          31    Special Weapons
          46    Assault Weapons
7 Space Marine Scouts
52 Terminators
          2      Commanders
          4      Librarians
          5      Sergeants
          17    Marines
          10    Heavy Weapons
          9      Assault Weapons
3 Razorbacks (Mk1)
3 Predators (Mk1)
4 Land Raiders (3@ Mk1; 1@ Mk3)
7 Rhinos (6@ Mk1; 1@ Mk3-mod as Damocles?)
6 Dreadnoughts (4 @ Mk1; 2@ Mk2)
3 Robots (Mk1)
3 Bikes (2@ Mk1; 1@ Mk3)
3 Bike + Sidecar (Mk1)
8 Land Speeders (5@ Mk1; 3@ Mk3)

With perfect utilization, I could make 30 units of Space Marines, and 9 units of Terminators.

About 2/3 of all this is assembled and about 2/3 of whats assembled is painted.

Retro Models - Aquamarines (pic heavy) evergoing WIP

I have been playing and collecting 40K since 1987 when Rogue Trader first came out. My first Army was Space Marines. I wanted to play a chapter of my own, so I created the Aquamarines, a successor to the Ultramarines--And as typical with me, I still have all of them! They even inspired the colors of this site!!

=====

Some of the very first Space Marines

Over the years, I have painted and repainted my models as my skill improves, my tastes change, or as codex specifications demand. In 2007, I started the most recent overhaul, which included an experiment with computer generated banners.

The middle two of the first row are metal.

The bulk of my force is comprised of the original plastic Space Marine kits, reinforced with the blister pack metal figures of the era. I do have quite a few "newer) plastic marines (from the 2nd-5th WH40K boxed sets) but most are unused or have been gifted to my son.

One of my newest models!

An early attempt at a chapter banner. The banner pole is aluminum rod and is removable from larger tube at the hand for easy storing.

Two tactical sergeants and a command squad sergeant

Here are my "recent" computer generated character banners. All are mounted on aluminum rods and are removable from the backpacks.

Banners removed and a view from the back

Some character models

A better view of their shoulder pads. The servo-arm is removable.

My pride and joy of the army!! Original tanks bough from my FLGS at the time!! Back then, Rhinos came three to a box and Land Raiders came in pairs--Each for $20!!!

The TL Las Canon Sponsons were built with aluminum rod, wires, Zoid toy bitz and Rhino roof hatches. They can rotate over 180°. I dremel'd off the original Land Raider tank treads and attached scale tank treads from a model a friend gave me.

My other original tanks. I also purchased a Predator and a Razorback when the came out. Over the last 10 years I have been collecting RT era tanks off eBay and  my current tank fleet totals 15! (Rhino x7, Land Raider x3, Predator x2, Razorback x3)

I reeeaaallly like Terminators!!! The back row are all "prototypes" that were released before the large box set was available. In modernizing the old figs, I glued the 25mm base to a 40mm base and then pulled the arms from the body a bit so they have a larger "foot print" This makes them similar in height and breadth to newer models.

Back on my Feet... sort of

Well its been a week since I came back from the hospital, and I finally had the strength to get out to the workbench last night. I've spent 3.5 weeks on my back after 2 surgeries (there is a chance I am going back for a third next week), so I'm a little week in the legs right now.

I spent a few hours last night and a few hours today painting. I didn't worry too much about completing any challenges or working on armies... I just painted what caught my eye.

The first thing I worked on was a small unit of RT era Penal Legion troops. The sergeant and 3 of the troops were acquired in the 80's and I recently picked up the other 2 troops from Laertes. They will perform double duty as Dark Heresy NPC's and members of a Rag Tag IG army I've been brewing up.

These guys were painted with a base coat, 3 layers of washes (2x Devlan Mud, 1x Badab Black), and then "highlighted" with the base coat.


I also worked a little bit on the wholesale repainting of my BFG Space Marine fleet by repainting a squadron of Hunter class destroyers, and painting 2 Grey Knight Strike Cruisers. I ordered the cruisers from Forge World about 2-3 years ago and I never got around to assembling them. The destroyers were ordered from GW around the same time, along with a pack of Gladius and Nova frigates and all three squadrons were painted straight away.