Sentinels: Custom Bases and Paint

Another week, another small update: Sentinels are complete with basic paint job, nothing fancy just the basics. Highlights and shading await next week, yippie!

Yes that's a Tallarn heavy weapon gunner in that scout variant, I use the metal heavy weapon gunners for lots of things in my army, on to the front:

Army Reborn: Space Wolves

In late 2006 to early 2007, right before my second trip to Iraq, I had the pleasure of playing with a local gamer, Tom Schadle. Some of you guys might know Tom from a few years back, he moderated some boards at Bolter and Chainsword and painted mini's. Auctually he was a pretty prolific painter with over 13 Golden Daemons and a Slayer Sword to his name. Tom and I played bunches of his Black Templars against my Imperial Guard until one day he suggested that we each start a new army, he chose Sisters of Battle and I went with Space Wolves. For Christmas 2006 is gave me the simple, and very old school, space wolf below. This space wolf and all his brothers have sat in an army transport for the last 4 years, until this week.

Reader E-mail: IG Army List Question

Tallarn, I posted an army list over on (a forum to remain nameless) that's been collecting mothballs, and was wondering if you could take a look at it and add some input. Fair warning- it's a little long. Here's the copy/paste from (forum of Erudite intellect that can't muster one reply in 14 days...):

Sentinels: Custom Bases Part Deux!

Now that the molds for the bases have dried it is time to test them out. I am so glad I decided to experiment on the Sentinel Bases before deciding to try and rebase the entire army: lots of learning going on here. So I cast the first of the bases today, mixing the resin is a simple 1 part ‘A’ and one part ‘B’ process. Pour equal parts of each, the kit comes with measuring cups, into a plastic cup, mix for 30 seconds and pour into the molds:

Observation: Sisters of Battle Rumors

It has been a wild few weeks and now that the dust has settled a bit; let’s take a look at these Sisters of Battle rumors shall we? So around three of four days before the end of March, right before April fool’s day, a few pages of a supposed ‘play test’ Sisters of Battle codex reared their ugly head on the interwebz. Some interesting stuff in there, with some hand written notes similar to previous leaked play test codex appearances, not the least of which was some stats on the sisters and the addition of a new plastic kit, the Repressor.

5 Minute History: Land Raider

After a couple months of Guard Vehicle history its time to switch gears: The Space Marine Land Raider.  Used by the Space Marines, their Chaos counterparts and the Inquisition, it is one of the most resilient vehicles in the game. It was one of the first vehicles to be introduced by Games Workshop for the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader tabletop miniatures game. Originally, it was available to Space Marine and Imperial Guard armies. The second edition of the game, and all Imperial Guard armies since, have removed the vehicle from Imperial Guard army lists. It is armed with two twin-linked sponson mounted lascannons, and two heavy bolters. Additionally Space marine players can outfit it with a pintle mounted storm bolter and/or a hunter-killer missile.

The Original MK1 Land Radier

Sentinels: Custom Bases

What follows is a cautionary tale of hobby ideas gone awry, I tried to cast my own bases and I should have known better. The cost of the materials and time involved is a lot unless you are going to try and sell them, so take my advice and purchase them from one of the many online sources available. My little project documented in this update only served to raise my respect for guys that actually do mess with resin casting. For the rest of us, just buy it from them!

With the project of rebasing the entire force on the horizon (I cannot stand the standard bases I am using) I needed to decide between purchasing resin cast bases or creating my own, it goes without saying that I will be purchasing all my future bases! So I decided to experiment a bit on the sentinels. Here are the two base variations I tried:

Hobby: Color Selection Help

Meet Shamus and Angus, the two names I was not allowed to give my first born son, the Squad leader and Platoon Leader of my newly levied Veteran Platoon. On the left is Shamus; the dapper looking Sergeant that has a drinking habit, not a drinking problem mind you, as you can clearly see by the leather bota bag in his left hand. And Angus, the equally dapper Platoon Leader with the bolt gun and faith that his cloth shirt, and refractor field generator, will save him from harm. Obviously years of combat have rendered their thick skulls impervious to enemy weapons as both have decided to leave their helmets safely attached to their belts. Both of them are sporting their combat kilts from Victoria Lamb's fall line of battlefield accessories.

5 Minute History: Basilisk

The Basilisk has been the primary artillery weapon used by the Imperial Guard in the Warhammer 40,000 wargame since 2nd edition. It appears similar to real-life self-propelled artillery howitzers and most closely resembles the US M107 8-inch self propelled howitzer. Essentially the Basilisk is an artillery piece mounted to a stripped-down chassis of another Imperial Guard vehicle, the Chimera. Since its introduction during the game's second edition, the Basilisk has mounted one of the longest-ranged weapons in the entire game, the Earthshaker Cannon.

Original Basilisk Box set, yes those are Tallarn crew!

Sentinels: Yard Sale Dealing

Alrighty, so when you go to a garage sale and you see a bunch of silly collectible cookie tins - look inside! For 5 bucks I got a Christmas edition M & M’s tin and everything inside; like 5 IG Sentinels perhaps? Oh yes, 5 sentinels. They might not be in the best condition, but there will be at least a full squadron of 3 salvaged from this poor old woman’s messy garage! And we may as well go over paint stripping while we are doing this, cause there is a lot to do:

Deep Thoughts: Translation Please

The other day at a major national chain of coffee restaurants featuring a green logo highlighting a mermaid, that shall remain nameless so that I may feel better about not boosting their over bloated sales through my own little advertisement efforts. We all know this place to be the purveyor of that delicious black substance we love and understand as coffee, it was in this place that a question was posed to me as I attempted to purchase some coffee beans.

5 Minute History: Sentinel

The first Sentinels produced by Games Workshop looked nothing like its modern day descendant and instead looked like an egg on toothpicks. The Sentinel is a bi-pedal walker used by the Imperial Guard in the Warhammer 40,000. It appears as an armless walker, in contrast to walkers of most other races which have arms, additionally the sentinel is typically armed with only one heavy weapon. The current sentinel bears some resemblance to the imperial AT-STs from Star Wars. Although the scout variant sentinels have open driver compartments rather than the enclosed cabins used by the armored sentinel variant.

Behold the power of the Rouge Trader Sentinel!

A Fist Full of Bitz: Final 4

Someday I won't resort to using the droid to take pictures everyday, but at 8 mega pixels it will do for now - just no controls over the macro settings. On the work bench is the Medusa, sister to the one I already finished in the same lowrider style as the first one, which is complete but needs a clear coat, and I don't have any at the moment, so she will sit there for a few days. Today I also built the final 4 veterans for the unit, you can see the 4 new ones primered and ready for paint so they can join the other 6.