Backlog to battlefield : half finished projects from 80s-20s for One page rules.

I had a nice post written up before it got swallowed by the editor..

Here’s the first warband finished. 3 pox walkers proxies, 4 cultists and 4 Plague brothers. I’m not keen on how over detailed modern GW minis are but I like how these turned out.

The bases are done in a swampy style using vallejos water effect paste. It’s awkward to work with because this isn’t what it’s designed for but it worked. Maybe in the future I’ll use gloss varnish instead. Would have been easier.

The flesh was done using coat d arms purple and xpres medium from vallejo to make a purple contrast paint to go over flesh base. I think it worked nicely and I’m glad the coat d arms stock pile I have had found a use as xpress medium fodder..

The cultists use red as a unifying colour while the whole army uses a dark brown. It ties them together while making them still look rag tag. I originally wanted them to be brighter but applied a wash over too much of the Plague marines and had to knock back the original test model to fit in. He had too many highlights and didn’t feel the same. Was a shame as I liked the original look but it was easier to wash him than highlight 3 other guys.

Next project is a Feudal Guard army using 3d printed Halo ODSTs. They have 2 shredguns, a sniper and a rocket launcher. Whole team comes in at 250 points and 8 models. I plan to do them in an urban camo scheme with black armour highlighted blue. Shouldn’t take too long to paint that way.

I’ve been working on the vanseer models in the background but it’s hard to photograph the hover boards so they’re off camera for now.

Next update might feature some human defense force conversions using Bolt action, wargames atlantic and Fireforge games.. depends how much I paint vs built. But I have a 1k points list in mind and I’m picking away at it as I go.

It was a beautiful English spring afternoon, the rain was going sideways and the thunder was shaking the tiles off the roof. From down the stairs a horrifying noise could be heard, some twerp on youtube shouting over minecraft gameplay with the fake enthusiasm only 1 million subscribers could manifest. To save myself from the torture (and indoctrinate the next generation into our fair hobby), I snatched up my nephew and we began placing poorly made foam hills and 3D printed ruins across the far too small wooden table coated in yogurt and MnMs. Scavenging through my ever growing pile of “Stuff I half finished years ago” I found some Necromunda Van Saar guys from 2 years back and some Chaos Space Marines from probably 5 times longer and our first experience with One Page Rules Grim Dark Future Skirmish (OPRGDFS, try to pronounce it! I bet you can’t!) began. An hour and a lot of fun later we were going through my pile of shame and “Why couldn’t we use those cool armoured guys (Terminators)?” came up and my fate was sealed. My own poorly thought out schemes made me want to put together a collection of Skirmish warbands offering different playing styles and small hobby projects. My stash would shrink.. I hoped.. or the 3D printer would be working over time to fill in gaps I never knew I had..

The first Warband on the painting table is an old Retribution of Scryah army for the (mostly) dead game of Warmachine (or Hordes if you were more inclined to Werewolf six packs). This was my pet army and I collected a lot of the early models before I retired from wargaming due to health issues I’m basically cursed with for life. They make an ideal Eternal Dynasty force with their semi sci fi stylings, halberds, strange armoured forms and even stranger Warjacks. My original colour scheme was a simple silver with pink or torquise gems (why do all elves have gems?) depending on the era painted. To update this I went all in on the new Vallejo Xpres paints and tinted the silver closer to the dark green I had used for the non-armoured troops. A quick update and one that looks quite snazzy if I do say so myself. Pics for these will follow in the next update.

The second warband to be updated is the Van Seer gang from Necromunda. The base gang is already painted and has a full faction list already built into GDFS (Gudfus?) so it’s just a matter of painting up 3 more models to complete the 250 points recommended game size. 2 Hover boarders and some tech guy with a cable prone to breaking because.. Well I suppose it sells more Games Workshop super glue..? Sorry pics also in the next update..

Speaking of GW, some how I got hold of some Plague marines from the 8^th edition of 40k and I had some totally not pox walkers 3D printed with minor printing flaws that left them at the bottom of the bits box. The pox walkers were rapidly painted up and the Death guard are being plucked away at now.

Those old things? 2^nd edition Space marines! Bought by me as a child and poorly painted of course! Some have been stripped while others will remain with paint thicker than I am (and that’s impressive!) I intend to use them as we would back in the day and supplement them with some space scouts and a unit of 3 terminators. A modern terminator may have snuck his way in due to a Christmas gift swap and another brilliant English afternoon of boredom.

Space Nazis! That’s right! I bought a German Winter Heer boxset intending to do it as a project when I wanted to do a full army but I came up a wee bit short on.. well I built like 8 dudes and then promptly lost them in the shuffle of boxes I stuff things in because I’ve ran out of storage space. But now they’re back and they’re better than ever! I really enjoy awful B movies and ‘Nazis on the moon’ has always been up there in concepts. So I picked up some ball tanks (possibly real, possibly not but they’re BALLS OF STEEL) and will pick up the Nazi UFO kit for a flier when I get more of the army finished. These will be Human Defense force or Feudal Guard depending on how I feel at the time. There’s also some Wargames atlantic figures mixed in because they take a head swap well and I needed some heavier armoured guys for special weapons.. Another sprue built and ready to paint!

Finally we have the Alien hive from One Page Rules themselves. The first STL files I ever purchased, printed and then abandoned in the bits box (are you noticing a pattern?). I dug out 3 melee grunts, 3 spitters, some soul stealers and a warrior to lead them. These are already base coated with Army painter’s Speed paint Orc Skin and then given a coat of matt varnish to stop them reactivating. I’m looking forward to getting these guys painted up and having them face off against the Space Nazis! I really like the idea of a terrible B movie about Nazis escaping to the moon only to find it over run by hostile life forms and they have to fight for their survival. I don’t pay much attention to historical weaponry so I assume their rifles can work on the moon.. I always picked the Allies when playing Day of Defeat because I liked the PING noise the rifle made..

That’s the first few warbands on the painting table.. And fair warning, something lurks within the reads of 3D printing. I’ve always wanted a 28mm Covenant from Halo army and thanks to the Halo Ground command community they can be printed now! So as these projects are chipped away at I will be rewarding myself with some Halo goodness. A full 2,000 point army complete with a 28mm Wraith (my absolute dream kit) will be printed and is intended to be my full time OPRGD army for attending events and local clubs.. Expect lots of grunts and worshipping of the food nipple from here on out! There maybe a few painting tutorials too.

P.S. If I fail to finish any war bands I just want to say..I tried so hard and got so Ghar, but in the end it doesn’t even matter.

*Apologies some of the warbands aren’t featured in the pictures. I forgot to take them when I had things set up.. And forgot to even mention a full demonic army while writing this first post.. We’re going deep on these old projects and even I can’t keep track of them. My health isn’t the best so I’m plucking away at what I can and will post as I go. Deathguard aren’t fat off done now do I need to decide which factions painted next.