55,000 views!!! ... and Squat shopping, and a double Genestealer armies project.

I am currently on holiday, but have been strangely busy doing all sorts of things, so alas not had time to update the blog as usual on either Sunday or Monday, or as of yet do much painting, only Skaven basing. With the few free days I have, I am going to sort out things for future updates, and paint.

However, I am pleased to report that as of today my blog has received 55,463 views since I started blogging in April 2013!
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog, the random projects I have been undertaking, and my miniatures collection. I still have lots of things to post and lots of projects I still have on the 'to do' list, including several armies.

Currently I am still basing the Skaven army, which given the free time will be completed this week. Other than the Skaven I have been distracted by two things.

Firstly I have been shopping.
I have been doing a lot of overtime recently which has eaten into my painting time like a Tyranid attacking Squats :( . Now on the subject of Squats, I have consequently had some money to spare, so I have been buying more Squats. Those of you who have followed my blog may recall that at the start of the year I painted my Squat Army, compiled according to the Rogue Trader Space Dwarf/Squat army list from White Dwarf #111. 
The finished army can be found here: http://goblinlee.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/squat-army-finished.html

I have always really liked the Squat miniatures and the background, but I have no real reason to buy any more Squats other than I like them, which I consider a good enough reason in itself. I will confess that I have probably spent about £130 on e-bay, including paying a little too much for the odd miniature here and there, but have managed to assemble another 44 metal miniatures and 21 plastic Squats in a couple of weeks.

So what to do with them? I did have an idea of using some of them to use as Squat troopers to accompany some of the old metal Imperial Army models to build a force according the Hylgar's Hellraisers, from the 1988 Book of the Astronomican. However I am more inclinded to either add them to the existing Squat army, or re-organise my current Squat army and the new models, and form a small Chaos Squat army in addition to my current army. I am also not a 100% happy with my Squat army's painting and might tinker with the organisation, and re-do the highlighting.

 E-bay haul: 

39 Metal Squats (the other 5 are still in the post) and 21 plastic Squats.

What follows is a selection of the Squats above, mainly 'new ones' I have never owned before.

 Medic, Standard Bearer, and Iron Claw Squat with Hand Flamer. 

 I love the character of these 3, I feel the Medic is one of the 'must have' models for a Squat army, wielding his dinky little chainsword; the Standard Bearer looks cool in the shades and the 'Eagle' has that early Rogue Trader feel to it; and the cigar smoking Iron Claw squat with the bionic eye looks like a crazy Pyromaniac!

 On the left is an old RT303 Heavy Weapon Squat, but carrying the old Grenade Launcher. I have another one of these Squats in the post with the first old style Heavy Plasma Gun, and I am going to swap weapons in my Ork army so I can field one of the first old style Heavy Bolters too. 

Centre another Iron Claw Pyromaniac with a full sized Flamer this time. 

To his right is RT 303 Loader Grigg, who will help crew to field gun later on in this post.

 3 more Iron Claw Squats, with pistols and Las-Guns. 

I was never a fan of Iron Claw Squat models at the time (I liked the Goblins though unsurprisingly!), and so avoided buying them. When it came to painting them up earlier this year I found to my suprise that they really painted up well, and that I actually quite liked them.

..and yet another 3 Iron Claw, looking mean and meaning business.

 ...and you guessed it, 3 more Iron Claw Squats.

 I really like the one on the left with the Auto-Gun and shades, I bought him from e-bay especially (£5.99 inc. P&P I think).

 Adventurers.

On the left is the RT601 Adventurers range 'Squat Engineer'. Not sure what I will do with him, he might end up as a crew member or in a Hearthguard. I liked the miniature, so I got him :) 

On the right is one of the 1989 release Adventurers.

 21 Plastic Squats, tided up and awaiting (literally!) re-arming. I have a pile of arms for these and a variety of weapons.

The Imperial Guard Auto-Cannon. 

I picked this model up second hand in the 2000's and know nothing about it. It has the Imperial Eagle on it (so it's likely to be Citadel/GW) and the gunplate, base, and wheels look Citadel and similar to the Thudd Gun. If anyone knows anythning about it, please let me know as I can't find out anything about it.

I have decided that I might use it as a subsitute for a Thudd Gun, and glue the Blood Bowl Dwarf Kicker (suitably painted of course) onto it, with his foot resting on the wheel. 

If the gun turns out to be perhaps very very rare or something, I might just mount him on a base instead.

  Looking down the barrel of the gun.

Now secondly, in addition to spending money on Squats and basing Skaven, I have dug out an old collection of miniatures I forgot I had.

Admiring the lovely (but really expensive!) new GW Tyranids got me thinking about the post Rogue Trader background of the poor Squats being eaten by those nefarious 'Nids. I recalled that although I have never owned a Tyranid army (at least not yet) but I did have a box of Genestealers somewhere. In addition several Oldhammer Bloggers have been re-visiting their Genestealer collections. So I thought I would go hunting Genestealers!

Looking at what I had found I checked the Genestealer army lists; the Genestealer Invasion Force list in White Dwarf # 115; and the the Genestealer Cult list in White Dwarf #116. Both armies looked fun, and I could not decide which one to do. The Invasion force did'nt have many Hybrids but lots of Purestrain Genestealers, whilst the Cult force seemed to have even fewer Hybrids and Purstrains, but lots of other options.

As I have enough Hybrids to cover the maximum number required of both Armies, and lots of Purestrain Genestealers, I thought I would do both lists. I have the concept of a Genestealer force answering the psychic call of a hidden Genestealer Cult, and invading the planet in support of the Cult's insurrection. I have a lot of spare Rogue Trader era Pirates and Imperial Guard to act as Brood Brothers, so I just have to work out a pair of army lists and role up the equipment, etc.

I though 1,500 point for each army so they would form a good 3,000 point together. I can always increase the points with more Brood Brothers, invading Purestrain Genestealers and vehicles.

I plan to make the Cult a Slaanesh aligned Cult, combining the idea of a Slaanesh pleasure/sex cult with the reproductive imperative of the Genestealers. It also means that I can paint a lot of purple and blue across both forces, linking the colours of Slaanesh and the Genestealers together. In addition, 6 is a good size for small battlefield flexible squads. Now all I need to do is source some Cult Limousines.

 Box 'o 'Stealers! 

I have 72 painted up, all from the Space Hulk era.

 

 Mix of Hybrids, the plastic Space Hulk ones at the top, and a mix of the metal ones below. I will use the plastic ones for 1st and 2nd Generation Hybrids, and the others for 3rd and 4th, and for the Magus.

 Some of the Iron Claw Imperial Guard/Mercenary miniatures which I think will fit in well.

 The rest of the Brood Brother will be from the early range of Imperial Army/Guard, of which these are just a few. 

 I also have a few Confrontation Gangers/Titan Crew which could work as Brood Brothers or Rogue Psykers.

Anyway, leaving all of the above aside, I still need to base the Skaven. 

I have opted for a grey coloured base to lighten up the look of the minatures, and two types of flock to suggest a mix of live and dying grasses.  

Here is a test model. Only 200+ to go ! 

Next blog update will be Skaven, probably Genestealers, and maybe more Squats. :)