Mike Broadbent

I heard that Mike Broadbent passed away earlier this month. He sculpted many ranges, not least the teddy bears for multiple periods. I mostly knew him for his Australian 54mm figures, which I have picked up over several decades. I met him at a few conventions, working with Eureka and Slave 2 Gaming.

Vale.

Five Parsecs. Campaign Game 18. A secret revealed

 Last time, in Hive Primus...

Gallius Marbec's resolve to unmask his mysterious opponents is unquenched, despite the death of Julio Rybeck and the injuries to his other companions. Marabec leads his reluctant team deeper into the Underhive...

"Down here will be proof of our enemies!"

Chugger runs forwards, enraged by what he sees!

He uproots the hated totem,
but is distracted from approaching swift movement...

Xenos! Terrifying monsters slide out of the gloom!

Chugger swats them back but more erupt from hidden passageways!

"Fall back!" cries Marbec.

Roma guts one of the monsters with her sword

Chugger takes the foul totem with him.

Impossibly, Akenz fights off three xenos.

The last beast hisses and withdraws under a crossfire.

Marbec returns to safer levels. His crew are rattled by what they have encountered, and can barely explain it to Venda and Lady Heldycryn in the sickbay.

Is this blasphemous totem the proof Marbec needs?

Gallius decides it is time to leave. His crew are loading supplies into their shuttle when the hangar bay doors explode inwards...

To be continued!

Lamenters Kill Team Justian

++Our forces have been scattered. I will gather survivors and complete the mission.++

Captain Justian, 3rd Company

Strike Force Justian

Strike Force Justian was a 2023 limited release* of Space Marine sculpts which could add variety to your force, and also came with rules for a Kill Team. All the figures have detailed sculpted bases (which I quite like) and a choice of bare or helmeted heads. I agonised during assembly about the helmets vs. bare-headed debate. Ultimately, I landed on the bare-headed side due to the rule of cool. I painted them as Lamenters. The chapter markings are handpainted; the tactical markings are decals.

The figures come with names, but I've created my own characterisations. This Strike Force is an ad hoc creation following a (typically) unlucky planetary insertion.

Captain Justian is unimaginative, but leads from the front and cares for his men. I used some spare decals for his cape, which I'm pretty happy with.

Captain Justian

Sergeant Marius is an experienced leader. Justian listens to his advice and lets him steer the squad tactically.

Sergeant Marius

Brother Flavian is taciturn and efficient.  He is an Eliminator with a bolt sniper rifle. He wears the lighter Phobos armour, and cunningly covers the bright yellow with a cameleoline cloak. Something went awry in the painting and the wash came out very muddy and took off a bit of the underlying paint, but it looks OK in the end.

Brother Flavian

Cameleoline cloak

Brother Acules is a Heavy Intercessor and relishes weathering a storm of fire to protect his battle-brothers. He wears Gravis model armour, which is a bit beefier all over. He has a Heavy Bolter.

Brother Acules

When off duty, Brother Decian prays and hones his chainsword skills for melee.

Brother Decian

Brother Thysor was impetuous as a younger marine, but losing his arm made him more cautious. This is a superb sculpt with a real sense of motion. The smoke grenade hangs mid-air off the end of his bionic arm while his whole body goes into the throw. The pin lies by his feet as the lever flicks off. The pouch on his belt lies empty.

Brother Thysor

Brother Vignius is an experienced and level-headed marine who could be expected to lead his own squad some day- if he survives.

Brother Vignius

Skull-o-meter™: 31

Whilst painting Lamenters, I took the opportunity to complete my Infernus Marines. I finished another five, to make ten. I repainted the originals' shoulder borders to all yellow, and tidied up some squad marking decals for consistency.

Infernus Marines

*Whatever that means

More Red Corsairs recruits

I've repainted more of my pink marines to the livery of the Red Corsairs. I started with older sculpts (2008?) as a test, then moved on to the ones from Blackstone Fortress. I used Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 Bright Red directly over the pink. I left all the trim black- phew- I can see why Chaos players complain about painting this. I gave them a more pallid skin.

Sorcerer lord in terminator armour

Chaos Lord

Pinkstone no more

I had one of those moments where the painting muse took me, and I decided to repaint my Slaanesh-worshipping forces. The pink, while distinctive, never really satisfied me and it was a pain to paint. They had been known as Pinkstone Fortress- no more! They have been tempted by the offers of Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs...

I started with the Beastmen as a test- I simply painted over all the pink with red, painted the rags a dirty sand, and rusted everything up. It was pretty quick with a lot of the hard work done earlier.

Before

Beastmen

I was pretty happy, and launched into the traitor guard, enforcer, and ogryn.

Before

Traitor guard squad.

Traitor guard melee

Traitor guard lasguns

Traitor guard grenadiers

Traitor guard gunners with flamers

I converted the leaders to have different weapons.

Traitor guard chieftain with bolt pistol and chainsword

Traitor guard chieftain with plasma pistol and improvised blade.

I used some decals from Forgotten Chapters to finish off the enforcer.

Traitor enforcer.

I darkened the ogryn's claw.

Traitor ogryn.

Much happier with their new allegiance and appearance. I've still got a few more figures to go- not least the marines- and some new chaotic acquisitions.

Terrorscapes horror game report

I had a game of Terrorscape recently, which hadn't been on my radar before. It is a boardgame leaning heavily into horror movie tropes. Up to three players are characters trapped in a mansion. Behind a screen, the other player is the killer, who doesn't know where the survivors are. The killer has to use logic and deduction to find, fix and finish their opponents- killing one survivor to win the game. The survivors can run, hide, and sometimes defend themselves. but cannot hurt the killer. They have to find five keys or fix the radio and wait for the police- all these actions make noise which attracts the killer, who gets stronger as the game progresses.

Our game was painted by my friend Lims, who took the killer's role. The Butcher has abilities to progressively lock down parts of the mansion. We found a few helpful items, not to mention a secret passage to the telephone room, and were saved by a cameo from Commissioner Gordon- not a moment too soon, as my character was about to be murderised!

I was concerned that the tension in a horror film comes from not knowing where the killer is, whereas in this game the killer's position is known. It was still tense, however, and I understand there are different types of villains that can be picked, as well as different locales.

Recommended!