No Mini Left Behind!

I had a poor lonely one-armed Skaven left over. No left arm, and a metal right arm holding a cudgel. 

Consigned to oblivion in the Bitz Box. 

I hate left over figures. 

Then I saw this graphic:

And said to myself: "Self, that'd make a great Skaven banner!"

But who to carry it?

Then, fueled by a quiet day at work and some chatter on Bluesky, I had a thunderbolt of inspiration, and remembered the one-armed Skaven.

Digging through leftover plastic sprues for a left arm, or a standard, or both.  

But plastic hands are really too small to drill out.

The Oathmark Human Cavalry set has a left hand holding a sword. I covered the shoulder with a Wargames Atlantic Goth cloak. 

Parts from four different manufacturers!

Drilling out the metal fist I then added a RAFM spear.

Some epoxy sculpting putty is used to tie in the cloak better with the right shoulder. 

Several attempts to paint the words were botched, so I just went with a generic Skaven design. Electrical Pete said he needed a tactical rock to make him a low level hero. That would also help correct his lean to the right. A small piece of bark was quickly found and everything glued to a washer.

While finishing him I also finished repainting a Skaven with a barbed whip, who will hopefully keep the Rat Ogres on task.

"On! On! Kill the Man-things! Yes, yes!"

I also finished a second unit of Gutter Runners.  They needed repainting, and I added a Gothic sling to one upraised had that had been brandishing a triangular Skaven thingy (throwing weapon?).

The Beast Master and the 2nd Gutter Runners were all glued on to GW 20mm squares which were a pain to cut them off of. Fortunately I didn't break anything.

My horde of Skaven is growing!

Rats On A Roll

Knocked some more Skaven out this past week. The second unit of Clanrats with polearms and a unit of Gutter Runners. 

The Gutter Runners are the way the original owner assembled them. I just did an overpaint and repaired a crack in the sling.

They're classed as Light Infantry for Midgard. So more stabby and less shooty than other skirmish troops. But the slings give them decent range.

You can tell they have slings, because one of them is shooting with one!

My horde of painted Skaven is now up to 1x unit of Stormvermin, 3x Clanrats (2 of those with polearms), 1x unit of Gutter Runners, 3x Rat Ogres (who will be their own units once I get some giant rats to fill out their bases), and a Grey Seer.

Reinforcements for the Tolly-Maeryn

I wanted to work on these weirdos months ago. But I couldn't find the box of parts that I had set somewhere safe for weeks, until I found them while looking for something else, naturally. 

Fortunately I found them before Don reprinted everything. 

Light Machine Gunners

But what has been lost, is found again, as the Padre says. And assembled and painted. Hopefully I have enough now to put together a decent ~400 point force of them for Clash of Rhyfles.  I tried last month, but the low Skill value on the basic rhyflers meant I was struggling to get a 300 point squad together. 

They also rely on a lot of squad LMGs and an assortment of Leader options to make up for the low Skill of their basic conscript Home Guard rank and file. 

And I mean a lot of LMGs. They can have 3 per squad if I give one to the Milwer (Corporal). So I need Don to print me another 5 to 8 LMGs for the complete company. 

Veteran in camouflage cloak 

One of the leader options is a Veteran who has rejoined the ranks to defend the homeland. He has infiltrate and a better skill level, so he's good for sneaking about and being annoying.

Technically they're carrying Harlechs, but on one figure the rhyfle had broken off, so I cut the end off a Bostad rhyfle used by the squaddies.

Rebuilt rhyfle on the right 

Leaders all gesturing

Another character they get is the grouchy Veteran, who is missing an arm,  which explains his bad mood I'm sure, but he brings his experience, higher Skill, Leadership, and being a good pistol shot to the battlefield. 

Since I don't need two one-armed veterans, I added a pointing arm to another to make another officer. 

I also needed another NCO to finish the fourth squad. This is a dyna (quar female). 

Another one of their things is rhyfle grenadiers. Two per squad. Trying to build a rhyfler aiming their rhyfle upwards wasn't working, so I opted for declaring that all rhyfle grenadiers are wearing the soft hat with plumes. 

These ones also have spherical grenades on their belts. 

They're also dynas (female quar). But it's hard to tell with the rhyfles across their busts.

Except for more LMGs, this army is complete. 

Unless I want to add their bicycle dragoons. 

Retro Rats

The first unit from the bag of old Skaven that Pasha Dan gave me at Ragnarok back in July. I had to glue several tails on and reposition some arms, but otherwise they are as the original owner assembled them.

I'll get two units of Clanrats with polearms (or maybe Stormvermin, still debating that, but my other Stormvermin are better armoured) and two four-figure units of skirmisher types out of the bag, plus a leader with a whip, who I think will try and motivate the Rat Ogres.

Note the small rats running around on the base. There are three if you can find them.

 The good sized base should help protect those tails from breaking.

A Most Excellent Day

I've mentioned before that my Gaming Friends are spread from Hamilton and Collingwood to Chatham. About a 3 hour drive at highway speeds from end to end. 

We're sort of the middle intersecting bit of a vast sprawling Venn-diagram of many Southern Ontario interconnected Gaming groups, clubs, or local scenes. So we don't get together as much as we'd like.

One of the lads, finding himself centrally located now, has organized game days during August in between his and another's birthdays.

So Saturday I rolled up my sea matt, packed my ships, and drove off to join a dozen of my friends,  old and new, for a day of barbecue and dice rolling.

I playtested a Snorkers! (Good Oh!) scenario I want to run next month at KEGSCon. I'm hoping to accommodate 6 players.

Swordfish get some good hits on Italian cruisers

British cruiser squadron under attack. This game saw a first. Not one, but TWO flights of aircraft getting shot down.

Italian DE flotilla making a torpedo attack on British light cruisers 

British destroyers finish off the Italian light cruisers

HMS Glasgow crippled by Italian torpedo 

Another view of the Swordfish making their attack

Learned some things. I'll review the fleet composition before the convention. Hopefully my friends had fun.

The gang

After dinner it was a game of Blücher with Keith's lovely 6mm armies. Joe and Paul ran the Imperial army. Rico and I played the Allies.

Allies in foreground. 

Swedes

Prussians

French, foreground. Not as many Prussians as I had started with in the back.

Danes

I'm not sure how it ended. I had to leave.

There were some other games on the dinner table. Age of sail using The Full Nelson.

And something involving pirates.

And there was cake! 

I can tell I had a good time because, despite being completely knackered, I had trouble settling down and getting to sleep.