Squats, Robots, and Other Mischief...

Just a quickie update, some assorted nostalgia from the storage unit and other hideaways! So, we plunge right in, staring with Le Regiment de Sacre Bleu, 3e Battalion from my old Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader days back when men were men, Warhammer 40K was fun, and Squats were in the Imperial Army:

The Squat Inquisitor in the middle of the group is an old Archive Miniatures spoof figure, a dwarf Obi-wan Kenobi from the 1970s that I felt was a perfect fit for the darkly humorous (and humorously dark) universe of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader...

Now here's a favorite figure of mine from any source, the Squat heavy weapons gunner with a maniacal grin on his face, as if he just knows how much mayhem he's about to inflict on whoever is downrange of his Conversion Beamer... the sculptor clearly captured the emotions of his subject quite strikingly:

I added the little guidon pennant to the back of the Conversion Beamer using a piece of copper wire. The pennant itself is some lead foil from the top of a wine bottle, a material that made for the absolute best flags and such for figures back when one could still get bottles of wine sealed with this material:

And the Squat company commander. Alas, I sold off some of his command many years ago to a collector, as I was no longer playing WH40KRT, but for nostalgia's sake and the fact that I am using these doughty fellows once again for 5150 and other sci fi skirmish games, I may just have to add some new recruits in the future and expand the company back to its original strength...

Now, shifting gears here, we see some classic robots from the Metal Magic Space Lords series, along with the largest of the Pahgon Battle Beasts from the series:

Here's the Phagon Battle Beast head on, probably the last thing many a hapless non-Phagon sees in their miserable existence once this bioengineered brute zeroes in on them...

Now here's something I alluded to last time, a 28mm T-80UK MBT produced by Empress Models I did up for Mark Ryan's son up in New York:

I used a generic factory finish I scared up using Google Images, keeping the vehicle fairly faction neutral in appearance so it will work as everything from a Russian service vehicle to a recent Taliban capture or post apocalypse piece of scenery or survivor hardware.

Moving along with things armored and tracked, here is my first 15mm Quar machine, the dreaded Baeliog heavy assault tractor:

I based the camo spec on a Great War French scheme used on the Char d'Assault St. Chamond. The main gun is much larger than that supplied with the kit, as my poor Baeliog was missing its main gun barrel (!) and I didn't have the patience to wait for Josh over at Zombiesmith to send me a new one, so I plunged into the spares box, came up with a left over 1/72 scale Reviresco 12-pounder gun barrel, and cut it down to fit, producing this menacing end result of Quarish ingenuity.

So I was minding my own business today typing away, and then I was interrupted by a distinctive and to my ears strange sound of a propeller driven aircraft flying over our complex, and decided to take a look out the window as we live near enough to Moffett Field to get some interesting aerial visitors passing through every now and again...

So here's what was making all the racket, it's twin rotors flailing away as the beast circled our neighborhood not once, but repeatedly enabling me to grab my camera and flail away trying to get some decent shots:

As it turned out, there were two of 'em, and they were escorting Air Force One(!!), which alas I was unable to get a picture of in time as my arthritis has slowed me down considerably over the years, and I was not able to shift my positions from upstairs to downstairs fast enough to have gotten more than a glimpse of the Presidents aerial limo disappearing towards the Northeast, with two Ospreys in horizontal flight mode barreling after the Boeing 747! 

I did manage to capture some very short video clips as well, so if I figure out how the heck to upload them for viewing on this blog, I'll do so at a later date. 

Meanwhile, those Ospreys got me to recall the fact that I have two (2) of the HALO MicroOps series tilt rotor gunships put away, just begging me to give them some upgrade love, and I am finishing up some GZG New Israeli troops that look like they're going to want a ride...

So until next time, Space Possums, stay tuned and always watch yer six!