Making of a Desert Gaming Board - Part IV

As I am still in need for some desert area terrain, I returned to my workbench. I came up with the idea of some huge bones/skeleton, like on Tatooine or on the planet from the movie Pitch Black. The Playmobil "4803 Ghost Whale Skeleton" was a good base to start from and you can get those things cheap on eBay for a few bucks.

I glued the skeleton on a base, filled the insides of the rips with putty and painted it. It is large enough to provide cover for most infantry and cavalry units. As you can see in the picture above, there is more to come. What do you think?

Imperial Navy - Aeronautica Imperialis: Avenger Strike Fighter (Finished)

This model was really fun to paint and not just a because I've never painted so much with yellow before. I used the yellow of Mr. Hobby (Aqueous Hobby Color) and that worked quite well. The color scheme based on that of a Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter plane and I hope you like my version it. The Avenger Strike Fighter will hopefully provide the needed aerial fire support for my armies of the Imperium.

WIP - Avenger Strike Fighter

I'm sure some of you know this situation. You have a spontaneous idea, you buy something and as soon as it arrives, all zest for action already subsided. This happened to me and my Avenger Strike Fighter. I bought it over a year ago and didn't even glue it together. That's why I also thought about selling it.

But since a few weeks I work on reducing my pile of shame of unfinished models and the Strike Fighter is one of them.

The primed model.

Color test on the underbelly.

Base colors applied.

Waiting for some weathering.

Tallarn Desert Raiders: Mukaali Rough Riders

I bought a bunch of Mukaali models some time ago, but never somehow managed to finish painting them. After all that time I finished them, eventually. Sadly, they have no own rules right now, as they had used to have in the Imperial Armour Book Volume Three. Nevertheless, I still can play them as standard Imperial Rough Riders from "Index: Imperium 2".

40k Rhineland - Winter Tournament

Last Saturday three friends and I met in a gaming store called "Top Tables" in Cologne and we held a small 40k tournament. Therefore, we used our own set of house rules based on the old "40k in 40 minutes" to build our armies. Here is our ruleset:

• Maximum army size is 750 points.
• Only the "Patrol Detachment" can be used and the army has to be "battle-forged".
• No model can have a wound characteristic higher than 12.
• No model can have a toughness characteristic higher than 7.
• Named characters, flyers, and relics are not allowed.
• Fortifications and creating/summoning further units during the battles is not allowed.
• Models and units cannot be held in reserves.
• Warlord-Traits cannot be used.
• The battlefield-size is 48"x48" and only the "Dawn of War" and "Hammer and Anvil" deployments can be used.
• The battles end after turn 5.
• All miniatures must be painted.

Funky_Biber - Tyranid Patrol

Clyde_Frosch - Plague Marines Patrol

Captain_Valerius - Khorne Berserker Patrol

My Tallarn Patrol

Overall, I was very satisfied with my Tallarn Desert Raiders. The mortar squads worked really well and shot down the multiple of their own point cost in each game. The Sentinels and the Hellhounds were okay, but I really could not handle them yet. For this, I probably need a little more game practice. ;)

Overall, it was a very entertaining tournament and we got through really fast (in about 5 hours). Many thanks to my teammates and I am sure that we will repeat that again soon! :D

The final ranking:

1. Captain_Valerius (Khorne) / =Talarion= (Tallarn)
2. Funky Biber (Tyranid)

3. Clyde_Frosch (Plague Marines)