Walkers on the way.

I just thought I'd share some news from Hasslefree Miniatures' Facebook page and that news is...

...The Grymn Walker is now getting production casts made and there will be stock for Salute. That is excellent news and I am looking forward to getting a few more to add to the platoon.

Speaking of walkers... I dug my old Macross Regult Pods out of the loft the other day and have converted them to go with a small group of troops. The troops were converted an age ago and they were destined for a mercenary desert force but things stalled and now, I've found an alternative role for them as part of a little jungle patrol. Here are a range of pix:

The beginning...

Converting in progress...

All converted and troops selected...

A close up of the WIP troops...

So there will be eight walkers and eight troops. The walkers will be green and will match the troops. It really makes a change to paint something that isn't grey!

Consolidation.

One of the major problems I always have is that I paint too many troops before I varnish them. That means that before I know it, I have a cupboard full of troops to varnish and no enthusiasm to do it. One of the important goals I set for this Urban Army project was to finish each platoon before I moved on to the next one and that meant, all of the decals, insignia and varnishing. Well, the sixth platoon has been completed and if you follow this LINK you will see all of them in their matt varnished glory. The post also shows a few other things but the main point of posting it was to highlight the fact that a certain amount of consolidation is always required to keep a large project on track.

Consolidation allows you to take a step back and see where you are. It allows you to take stock and then plan your next move. It enables you to catch up on all those little jobs that have been neglected and it also gives you the incentive to move things along by completing things and providing a finished item to get enthusiastic about.

The week before last, I had a week at home and managed to complete the 6th platoon (including transport), re-base and re-mark the airborne platoon troops and finish up the conversion work on their drop-ships. I also began looking into the storage side of things and have worked out what cases I will have to buy in order to store each of the platoons.

Storage has become a major problem at the moment and I am really going to have to sort out a few cases soon otherwise I won't have anywhere to put things when they are finished.

The project continues...

The Grymn Airborne Regiment arrives.

As I had predicted, I have been working on the Airborne platoon this week and have managed to finish all of the troops. These were already painted but they needed re-basing, decals adding and a bit of adjustment to their rank badges to bring them into line with the rest of my NMA forces. Here they are, ready for war:

I have taken the simple approach to marking these up for a number of reasons.

1. I have a lot of letters that won't get used so I thought I'd use them
2. These are effectively the Grymn version of the RAF Regiment and they have a much less rigid approach to insignia
3. These are a 'one off' so I could mark them up as I saw fit...but still wanted them to be individual
4. Their helmet markings are similar to the ones on the Walker (another air-force asset)

This means that I will have to go back and adjust some of the insignia tables that I have put up to bring everything together. It is one of the beauties of a project like this...plans change and as long as you remain flexibly minded, it is amazing how you can tie up all of the loose ends.

I have also been working on the drop-ships for this platoon. They are called Pilum Drop-ships and are slightly adapted Tau Devilfish Carriers:

These have had the following modifications:

1. Wing tips removed and the missile launchers removed from the drones
2. Rocket launchers built (using the drone missile launchers) and added
3. Grymn mini-gun replaces Tau burst-cannon
4. Top hatch replaced with a DS base and the original hatch

Not a lot of conversion but the main thing was to remove the drones because they are absolutely tied to the whole Tau idiom. I still need to do a little tidying but they are almost ready for paint.

Hopefully there will be more news soon.

Grymn News form Hasslefree.

I thought it was going to be quiet but it seems that Kev over at Hasslefree Miniatures has triumphed again with his latest offering:

You can see the whole thread HERE (but be warned, there are some miniature Breasts on display).

She is a female, Grymn Walker pilot and she is pretty awesome and as a result I thought I'd better share her QUICK!

Let's take it back to the start...

I had a less than productive shopping day yesterday and as a result, was unable to find a can of spray Matt varnish. That means that the vehicles for Number 6 Platoon will have to remain shiny until I can find some. The troops, however, will be getting a brush-on, Matt varnish this week while I am on a week's holiday (YAY!).

I am not a fan of varnishing but it is one of those jobs that have to be done...a bit like preparing miniatures for paint. Fortunately, I had a productive day on the preparation front yesterday and have managed to achieve this:

Yes, the next platoon is ready to start receiving their paint. I haven't started on the vehicles because they will distract me...and I won't be doing so until these are glossed, ready for decals so it is a fair way off. I have chosen the 8th platoon because I have enough decals for the vehicles. I expect that the next one will probably be the 5th platoon for the same reason.

On another note, I have finished adding all the ranks to the 6th platoon and here is an example of what they look like:

Nice and easy to see and nice and easy to paint.

I have a feeling that things will be fairly quiet here for a while as I paint up the sections for the up-coming platoon but fear not...if anything else turns up, I will let you know.

New Model Army... News!

After a couple of evenings of cussing and swearing, I have managed to add decals to all of the troops and vehicles for the first of the platoons. Here is the 6th Platoon of the Third regiment of the Grymn Army:

Each of the sections are placed in front of their transport vehicle and for the infantry squads, Charlie fire-team has a white number and Delta fire-team has a black number.

I have changed the marking of the helmets so that the platoon number is on the same side as the section number. It means that the numbers match the vehicles better and also they don't obscure the Regiment symbol.

I still need to paint on the ranks but I have, at least, come up with a range of markings that I can paint on to represent the rank structure that won't be too difficult:

The markings will be on the front of the helmets over to one side. I have only decided on the field ranks...because they are the only ranks I am going to be putting in the army.

Finally, here are a few pix of the Grymn Walker for scale purposes:

The miniatures are a Void Syntha Marine, a Dark Eldar, a Vulkan Battlesuit (Clanker) and a converted Critical Mass Games Arc Walker.

A small group of Grymn ready for fighting!

All these need now is a good coat of matt varnish after adding rank to the NCOs and Officers.

Grymn Walker arrives.

This week I received a very nice surprise from Kev and Sally at Hasslefree Miniatures...I was sent the Grymn Walker along with a seated and standing pilot:

This appears to be the one that was used for the various photos on the Forum of Doom because it arrived in a partially assembled state.

When I took it to pieces (a simple task of breaking the super-glue joints) I had a few minor repairs to carry out but it gave me an overall appreciation of how the kit will assemble when it gets released.

Components:
2x weapon arms
2x identical gun shields
1x pelvis
2x legs
2x feet
2x leg shields
1x body rear
1x body front

Everything has idiot proof joints so it was easy to assemble. both of the weapons can fit either side on the ball joints on the sides of the rear body. The legs are handed (so the right leg will go on the right side and the left on the left side - no mix and match) so there is only a small amount of pose-ability but enough for a little variation in a unit... the ball joints at the hips and ankles will further add to the range of poses. The body can be fitted to the pelvis through quite a range of rotation (only limited by a beam that projects from the rear of the pelvis). The guns are on ball joints as well so they have a huge range of positions.

From a model making perspective it is a lovely little model and would look great painted up by a professional and mounted on a scenic base. As a war-gaming piece there are a couple of things to be aware of:

1 - The leg shields have a very fragile join that will need some form of beefing up. I used some Green Stuff.
2 - The front cover would be awesome if it could open and close but the hinge is not quite large enough to drill a pin into. I have put magnets in the front so that I can remove/fit the front cover instead.
3 - The gun shields are also quite fragile but I fixed that by gluing a small piece of sprue between the shield and the gun to add an additional connection point...now it is solid.

I love the kit (I always knew I would) and will be buying more when it gets released. I doubt if I will be making too many with a pilot on display so the hinged front cover won't matter to me. It is easy to carry out the small additions to beef up the gun-shields and leg shields so I am not worried about that (and I expect a bit of careful gluing would probably work just as well as my ideas).

Hopefully, at some point more weapons will be designed (a missile pod for one) but there is no reason that either of the existing weapons couldn't be converted.

As it stands, I have received a wonderful gift that will sit very well with my Grymn forces... and I look forward to being able to purchase more when they are released.

Thank you Kev and Sally at Hasslefree Miniatures.