It's time for a Christmas parade.

Seeing as I haven't put a full army pic of my Tunnel Fighters up here, now is as good a time as any. The one remaining vehicle to be finished is the command vehicle (which is the white one in the picture) and once that one is done, the army will be complete:

It's taken over four years to get this far and each and every unit has a host of conversions so it is completely unique.

New Grymn Walker Options

Recently, Kev over at HF has been working on the Grymn Walker again. He has decided that having arms was a good idea so here are a few pix of the WIP:

They look rather nice, don't they? The arms should be sprued up by now and on their way to Grey Matter to be cast. Hopefully these will be in the Hasslefree shop soon.

In other Grymn news, there has been a modern-day Grymn spotted:

Another great addition to the range; hopefully to be joined by a few more in the near future. Only time will tell!

Finally, work has been going on in the background to finish the Tunnel Fighter army. Just one more vehicle remains to be finished and then, after a few number plates have been added and the varnish applied, the army will be complete. Once that happens there will be some army pix and some close ups etc.

A new year and new plans.

It has been a while since I last posted on here but the reason for that is I have been focusing on other projects that aren't particularly Grymn in flavour.

From a Grymn perspective, I have been busy trying to finish the Tunnel Fighter army and have now got just one unit and two vehicles to go (before varnish) before I achieve that. My current Tunnel Fighter list runs at:

Complete:

11 mechs
11 tracked APCs
2 wheeled transports
6 tactical squads
4 close combat squads
1 command squad
1 special command squad
1 medical squad
1 K9 squad
1 drone squad
2 Clanker units

To finish:

1 Clanker unit
1 Medical transport
1 specialist command transport

Apart from the troops and the mechs, here are a couple of pictures of some new things that have happened:

Obviously, once the last three elements are complete, I will take some proper army pics but that may not be for a while. The end of this project is a double edged sword... first of all, I will be sad to see it finished because I have really enjoyed putting all of the elements together but secondly, I will be glad to have it finished so that I can get on with other things... namely my Urban Army.

With the Urban Army in mind, I have already gathered all of the troop uints and most of the vehicles together but last week I also got hold of a squadron of Grymn Walkers... just like this one:

I am hoping that amassing 14 of them will provide the impetus I need to get back into the Urban project in full.

Here's to a positive and productive new year of Grymn goodness.

Post Salute musings.

Each year, I try my hardest to get to London so that I can attend the Salute Games convention. Salute is usually at the Excel Centre in the heart of the Docklands and is large enough for a host of traders to sell their wares, enough gaming-tables to fill a football pitch and a large group of people dressed in various costumes to wander around entertaining the thousands of visitors.

This year, I was helping out at the Hasslefree Miniatures stand and witnessed, first hand, just how busy these sort of shows can be. To say that I was kept very active all day was an understatement!

During the day, my main focus was selling the wares...but I kept a keen ear out for anyone showing interest in the Grymn range and I was surprised at how many people were buying them to start up a gang in Necromunda. There were many other people buying them to build armies and small skirmish forces too but the one thing that really got me thinking was how easy it would be to build up a gang for Necromunda.

A Necromunda gang normally has a range of members from hardened leaders through standard gangers and heavies (with special or heavy weapons) to juves (new recruits and younger members). The Grymn range of miniatures can cater for all of these options and still provide a wide enough range of weapons to make things interesting.

I haven't ever played the game or built a gang but it is all filling for the sandwich!

Maybe have:

Kjaran as the leader (Boltgun?)
Horgan as a heavy (Auto-cannon?)
Some light infantry as standard gangers (Auto-guns?)
Some close combat troops as juves (maybe swap one of the pistols for a knife/sword/axe?)
For a bit of flavour, you could add a few snipers or other specialists and if you were feeling particularly adventurous...maybe even an Ogryn?

To add further variety, there is a range of alternative weaponry and equipment that can be used to further customise your gang.

Well...that is Necromunda dealt with...and you can always use the rules for humans to field them. Maybe have them as House Van-Saar (due to their tech level).

On to other things...

...I heard tell that Kev White has got a bunch of Powered Armour clad Grymn sat on his sculpting bench as we speak. When I got a few minutes to chat with him, he mentioned that he was working on them and that they were progressing...so that could mean that there will be a bit of Powered Armour action turning up soon...lets hope! Add to that the jet-bikes (single and two seater) that are nearing completion and we could have a few really hard hitting units to field on the Grymn battlefields of the future.

So...the Tunnel Fighters are nearing completion. I have finished all the basic troops and am in the process of completing the small medical unit that has sat on my table for ages (just the bases to paint). I have one complete mech, five that are base-coated, one that is built and ready for paint and four that are still on the sprues. Once the mechs are done, I will be taking a step back from the project and will turn my focus onto my urban army.

...Speaking of the urban army, I have (in addition to the two platoons of infantry) now gathered together enough heavy infantry to have a small platoon of troops. It will have:

Command Section: 1xCommander, 1xComms and 2xHeavy Infantry
Support Section: 1xLeader, 1xHeavy Infantry and 2xRail-Gun
Section1: 2 Fireteams with: 1xLeader, 2xHeavy Infantry and 1xHeavy Pulse-Gun
Section2: 2 Fireteams with: 1xLeader, 2xHeavy Infantry and 1xHeavy Pulse-Gun

All of the heavy infantry will be armed with Pulse-Guns and as you can see, there is one section less than the standard infantry platoons due to the elite nature of the heavy infantry. That may change once I get further with the project but I have to bear in mind that there will need to be transport for the troops...and so far it is 5 vehicles for each standard platoon...and vehicle numbers soon mount up!!!

Thoughts of home and new directions...

I know it has been quiet on here for a while but being a serviceman places a few extra demands on a person's time...especially when you are away on detachment in Kenya!

Kenya is obviously hot, dusty and has a rather unreliable powergrid...so power-cuts happen quite frequently. For that reason, I don't tend to bring hobby stuff out here with me...I would only end up ruining what I tried to create.

Add to that the variable shifts and the detachment lifestyle and obligations and you end up with the hobby getting pretty much forgotten.

...HOWEVER...

I have now been out here for over a month and the end is in sight. In a couple of weeks I will be returning home and with that thought in mind, I have begun to plan what is in store for my Grymn horde.

The first thing I must really do is to finish off the two squads of Tunnel Fighters and the medics that have lain dormant for so long.

Next, I must try to finish all of the mechs that accompany them.

I have quite a few of the Clankers in my cupboard, ready to be converted and painted but I think I will hold off for a while with those because I reckon I'll need to do something a little different to 'ignite the muse'...

...so I have been thinking a lot about my boxes of light infantry...my Urban Army.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, Hasslefree Miniatures have recently shown off a host of new Grymn. They include snipers, LMG gunners, light infantry with single shot rocket launchers and new heavy infantry.

With the new options in mind, I am now able to re-sort my current platoon plans to include the more sensible special weapons available to me. Once I return home and get my hands on the Urban Army boxes, I will be able to better judge what new specialists will be required but I have come to the conclusion that once I have finished reorganising the troops, I should have enough for a company (just over a hundred troops).

Organisation will be (and always has been) based around the British Army, with four man fireteams at the core of platoons...

...but I'll go into all that in another post.

Gratuitous Army Pix

Seeing as I have been working on these all year, I thought it was time to show off a bit of progress...so here is the Tunnel Fighter army so far...

Command Squad

Infantry Squad (Dark Purple)

Infantry Squad (Brown)

Infantry Squad (Orange)

Infantry Squad (Pink)

Infantry Squad (Purple)

Infantry Squad (Yellow)

Close Combat Squad (Red)

Close Combat Squad (Green)

Close Combat Squad (Blue)

Close Combat Squad (Dark Green)

Medic Unit

K9 Unit

Drone Unit

Clanker Unit (Blue)

Clanker Unit (Red)

There is still a lot more to come...I have plans to add a mech to each unit...a bit like this one:


The mech above is the only one completely finished but I have 5 more that have been base-coated, 1 that is built ready to start painting and 4 more that are still on the sprue.

Also each unit will get an APC to transport it. Once that is done, I'll be adding specialist units ...so 2011 should be quite an interesting year.

Just as an aside, I will keep updating this post with completed units as they happen.