Giving broken slotta tabs the finger....like a Boss!

Welcome to another tutorial, where upon I presume that you have no idea how to fix a broken slotta tab & then I commence lecturing you about the best way to suck eggs.

Ok, are you ready? Or even vaguely interested?....No? Well fuck it! Here goes anyway....


I received these Ork Nobz in the mail a few weeks ago (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be buying minis anymore), but their slotta tabs were missing and I had to fix them. So I thought that while I was at it I might as well do a little bit of a tutorial, showing you all how I go about fixing'em.

Step 1: Find some minis with broken tabs.

Get some shitty old bases, no point in using clean skins.

Drill up through the soles of their feet up into their legs.

Pin the bastards! But don't glue them in place yet!!!

Put the mini on the base in the position you'd like and
 push it down firmly while rocking it back & forth.
Your trying to leave an impression in the base.

Here's those impressions that I just mentioned.

Now drill through the base at those two points and
insert the mini.

Using a pair of pliers I bent the pins over. It will
require a bit of force, so make sure you've had a hearty
breakfast before you begin this task.

Look at those bends! Stellar work there...perfect :)

Grab the little bugger by his noggin with a clothes peg....or something. Rest him upside
down on a slight angle. You'll see why in a jiffy.

Now, here's the magic ingredients that you'll need. You could use any other glue
if you wanted to, but this is what I used. Basically it's Super glue & Filler powder.

Apply a little drop of Super glue at the "end" of the pin, furthest from the hole. Then add a
little powder to set it. You just want to glue the pins in place, not the whole damn thing! You
can probably see why I suggested to sit the mini on a downward angle while you do this? It
helps to stop the Super glue wicking along the pin up into the feet of the mini. 

This is what you should be aiming for at this stage.

Remove the mini.

Then slam him back down onto the base again, but
this time glue him in place permanently.

Then you can go to town on the underside of the base.
Just do it in increments though, as this powder glue
dries rock solid almost instantly. If your not patient
you may end up with a glue mountain! 

These sexy beasts are now ready to be painted......probably in my next lifetime :P

Ok, job done.

Notes:

Some of you may be wondering why I just didn't glue the whole thing together in one go. The reason is that if I glued the pins into the legs, then inserted it into the base and bent the pins over, I'd run the risk of breaking the bond in the legs. This way, doing it in a few stages allows me to glue it "properly" at each step of the process.

You could do this with any other glue (as I already mentioned) like Areldite or straight Super glue, but the former takes an age to cure. While the latter runs all over the place (including my fingers) and if you don't use it sparingly it too takes an age to cure! Whereas, the powder & Super glue combo dries instantly and it's as tough as fuck!. Hence, why I chose to use it for this application :)

Hope this was somewhat helpful to some of you out there. Maybe not, maybe yes? It's hard to tell from over here :)

Anyway, cheerio everyone.

Tiny Tim

Well folks, welcome to another instalment of "Mr Papafakis' world of wonder".....otherwise known as "dribble aplenty". Just in case your new to this party, here's Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 of the construction of this Siege Dreadnought, which I'm going to tell you more about momentarily.

It has a name, Tiny Tim. Why? Because it was the first thing that popped into my head when I approached it's bosom with my pen that's why.....aahhh bosoms :)


Now, on with the kitbashing porno!

Behold!!! It's ready to paint!

Moniker "welded" on for longevity.

"Cock Bolter" all wired up. Strategically placed red & black wiring :P

Sacrificial victim....weapon swap botched by previous owner.

Guts added with acrylic caulking via syringe. The lugs are there to hold his restraint chains....to be added after paint.

Look at this glorious side.....glorious isn't it?

Battlefield repair i.e. plate welded over gaping hole. Chains welded onto wrecking ball too

The arse end rear view with ball bag testicular cabling hanging low.

"Power core's" aka corn cob holders :)

That's not a whole heap of snow scattered over various parts of him
either. I use acrylic caulking compound to replicate welds.

Chomp chomp!!!

So, he/it is done....at least, the conversion bit is anyway. Now it's the colouring in phase where I'll be trying hitherto untried rusting technique that I mentioned on the last post. I actually think this guys gunna be a little bit of a bugger to paint up. I've got quite a few different elements to consider i.e. painting up the victim, then the basic panel work, then the glowing power cores and finally the wrecking ball. Oh well, got no one to blame but myself do I?

So, Tiny Tim will be ready in about......aarrhhh fuck that! I'm not even gunna hazard a guess when he'll be done. He'll be finished when he's finished :) 

Until next post,

Cheers to all you lovely humans out there.

Will the real Stegatank please stand up?

Well, here we are again. Offering up more stuff for you to gawk at. Enjoy :)


Here is a subject that I think has been a little confusing right from the get go of RT. Now, let me preface this blog post by first stating that this may be old hat to some, blatantly obvious to others, but for me (with my diminished intellectual facilities due to.....old age, alcohol & marriage.) it's never been adequately explained. Well, I think it warrants clarification.....so here's my take on it;

In Rogue Trader, page 112, there is a single page dedicated to Walker's & Stegetank's. It describes them both "ok", but fails to include a picture of a Stegatank. "But there is one you ninny! Look under the heading of Stegatank, it's right there! A whole gang of them!!", I hear you cry. "But it's not, you fool!" I rebuke in anger. Take a closer look at an expert from Rogue Trader and you'll see what I mean.

Looks ok at a cursory glance yeah? Let's look a little closer in the next
picture shall we...

The plot thickens.....and clarity eludes us. Should we continue on down the rabbit hole?

After reading the descriptions it basically differentiates them into bipedal & quadrupedal categories.

Now, following on from my "study" of the information in Rogue Trader, my own interpretation of what GW had in mind when they envisaged what a Stegatank looked like, pretty much looks like they were loosely based on a series of model kits released in the mid 80's by Revell. They were called Robotech Defenders, I've included the examples from that range that look like Stegatank's below:

Their pretty funky looking model kits if you ask me. I remember seeing these in a brochure back in the day, but even then they were way outside of my meagre pocket money range. Oh ,but I really wanted them! The diorama for the last one is bloody fantastic too!

And here's a modern example of a Stegatank that I came across a few months back. Suitably pimped for some RT action. What do you think?

Now, as some of you may already well know (and I think I may have talked about this subject before in an earlier post, but my memory has decided to let me down again.), during the editing process for Rogue Trader they had originally planned to use a bunch of the staff's kitbashed creations to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions. After all, these were what the vehicles descriptions were based off of in the first place!

But, at some stage during the selection process for the pictures required for RT they had a think about the legal implications of using copyrighted material. And they came upon the realisation that they would have to pay licensing fees to each and every one of the manufacturers of these model kits if they wanted include them in the book. So, unfortunately for us, they had a rethink and decided the best (and cheapest) solution was to use illustrations instead of photography to accompany each of the vehicle descriptions instead.....more's the pity I say.

Alright, so now that I've finished my ramble/conclusion here's my point,

I reckon the above model kits were what GW had in mind for what a Stegatank looked like. 

What do you all think? If you have any differing ideas I'd be really keen to read them.

Now, go in pieces :P

Battle on planet Bdroom!!!

Hi, how are you?.....Doing well I hope?.....Nothing to complain about?.....Wife not giving you the shits?......Good, that's great news, let's begin :)

I've only written up three Rogue Trader battle reports so far, and they've all been played against my long time buddy from primary school. My son has joined in on two of them, but he was put off playing half way through one of them by the complexity & constant scanning the rule book (anyone who's ever played RT can sympathise) to find the ever elusive rule that you can never remember. But the next one we played with him we simplified the rules quite a bit....and he enjoyed that a whole lot more.

So, fast forward six months, my son has just finished his Xmas holidays, during which time we played a few simplified games of RT together. One we played on his large whiteboard, drawing a map of a cave system on it as he progressed. The next, we played on my small white board that I'd grassified a few years back, just for small skirmish battles. And finally, we played on his bedroom floor....where all boyhood games begin. And so, the latter of these battles is the setting of today's batrep.



The Scenario:

An Ultramarine forward contingent have been slowly gaining the trust of the inhabitants of the planet Bdroom over the last year. This small planet, with no real monetary wealth, has an over abundance of muscle i.e. Ogres. Which they are trying to coerce into the service of the emperor.

But, unlike other settlements that they have been to on this planet, the locals didn't seem too impressed with this "emperor god". Something to do with a shrivelled up dude kept alive be devouring humans by the bucket load sorta turned them off the idea. Strangely though, a couple of the villagers noticed a dash ornament on the bonnet of the Ultramarine's transport and they thought it must be another one of their Gods. They seemed so taken with this "deity" that they began falling over themselves to get a better look at it.

The Ultramarine's, far from home & the prying eyes of any nosey Inquisitors, thought that if they played up this new "deities'" importance to them then they might be able to get what they wanted. So, they travelled back into the city centre, removed a local statue that nobody seemed to care about & set to work re-working him into the same dash ornament, but in life size.

Upon presenting it to the villagers they fell completely under the spell of the Marines. For they had promised them that if they served the Ultramarine's with unquestioning loyalty they would get a chance to meet this God. in person! That was it, the Ogre's were now theirs to command.

Meanwhile, wandering across the vast emptiness that is planet Bdroom in his Walker, looking for more helpless settlements to raid, Thrugg happened across another wrecking machine plying it's trade, a small Khornate warband. He was so impressed with their bloodthirsty devotion to their work that he thought it best if they enjoyed their shared interests together. And after a short introduction (or fight, it was hard to tell) between the two leaders they decided to smash shit up together....awesome!!!!!

Thrugg had heard about an Ultramarine force about a days journey away that had plonked a large statue of a God in a village town square. This sounded like something he'd like to steal & the Khornate wrecking crew were more than willing to kick in a few of those prissy boy Ultramarine's skulls given half a chance. And so they headed off together in the direction of the village.



The protagonists:

"The Village people", pushed around by me:

2 squads of Ultramarine's, 
2 Dreadnoughts,
4 Ogres
and a  bunch of Yokels


"The Gatecrashers", pushed around by my son:

2 squads of Khornate Marines,
2 squads of Orks,
1 Walker,
1 Siege Dreadnought.



The objective:

The Village people had to prevent the invaders from taking the statue out of the village boundary....simples.

Game on! 

The peaceful village of Bdroom....laid out on my sons' bedroom floor.

The idol of "Rock on" will remain in Bdrooms' courtyard forever  more....amen.

Whereas this bunch of ne'er-do-wells has a different objective in mind.

Thrugg bellows to his mob "Bring me dat metal man, or else!"

Khornate traitor marines & Thruggs' crew approach the village, eager to revel in the carnage together.

"Your gunna eat metal fist soon az you stik your ed round ere!"

"Nice'n shady undu vis twee....fink I'll stay ere for a wile :)"

"Vey can't see me ere"

"Let's test the wall's strength"

"Arrhh fuuuck!!! Get down Bill & Ted!"

"Errr, do you fink it's safe here?"

"Kaboooom!!!!" Two marines managed to escape from the wall, moments before it was punched into oblivion.

The Ogre that "couldn't be seen" was seen by a squad of Orks....and died :(

The Evil doers smashed their way into the village. Will the Inhabitants be able to repel them?

A brave (or stupid?) Ogre rushes the Siege Dreadnought, while the Walker decides to introduce his foot to an old cottage.

This single rocket ended the Dreads' "wall smashing" days.

Much to the surprise & dismay of the people huddled behind the building, they were showered with debris....killing quite a few of them.

Hammeroid charged the two Ultramarine dreads'.

Only to be undone by that pesky rocket launcher dude, damn you!!!!

The marines managed to cut down a few of the unwelcome visitors to Bdroom, but not enough to dissuade them from entering.

A couple of sneaky marines decide to get up higher so that they may
be able to have a crack at the Walker crew.

Not fast enough to get out of the Walkers way.

The Khornate follower's begin their attack on the right flank. 

The two marines decided to try and "get in" the howdah, but failed :(

An Excalibur moment occurred while the Orks tried to gain entry into the tower.

Running down opponents turned out to be best (and funnest) way to
dispatch the enemy.

Failing to get in the howdah, the marines opted to make a dash for the
roof of the tower. Killing the crew of the Walker seemed the only 
plausible way to stop it.

Meanwhile, an Ogre & dread beat up the leg of the Walker. Making it
leak hydraulic fluid all over it's shiny paint work :(

Another Ogre introduced himself to the Khornate baddies, making a
 lasting impression.

Once again, the kicking attack kept working for the
Walker....Thrugg was well pleased with himself.

The traitors attempted to light up the Ogre, but he enjoyed the
warmth & just laughed in their faces :D

The one time in the entire game that nobody was killed when the
Walker decided to charge them...amazing!

The Khornate guys had quite a bad time for most of the game. Here they were finished off by collective assault from
the Ogre & Ultramarine's.

Followed by another stomp fest from the Walker. Thrugg now had tears of joy running down his battle scared face.

These two Ogres had managed to completely disable the Walkers right leg....immobilising it. 
Immediately after which Thrugg & co. jumped down to deal with. 

Amazingly, both Ogres were dispatched by the two Orks!

The rocket dude had the misfortune of having his magazine
 explode....beside his head. No amount of armour save was
 going to protect him from that.

Thrugg & his chum jumped back into the howdah and rained death onto
 the two remaining marines who had just got into firing position 
on top of the tower...bad luck old chums, bad luck indeed.

Thrugg & his best and only pal, perched upon their disabled Walker, 
surrounded by yokels.....what to do? What to do????

So....with a bit of a stalemate occurring, the villagers decided to do what they love to do most.....

What else could they do?

Conclusion:

With nothing left for the townsfolk to damage the Walker with....short of a few farmers axes. And the Walker crew still having full use of their assault cannon, there didn't seem to be a outright winner, so we called it a draw. It was a lot of fun, my son really enjoyed it & he's now nagging me for more. So all in all, it was a great success.

cheers :)