The Mighty Jundheim Jugulars finish off their first Season Victorious!

 *BRRZZZTTT- News from 'the Warden of the North' as ' Coach Right Stuff ' reports the end of the regular season for our favourite hungry aristocrats... and it seems to be good news! - BRRZZZTTT*

Finally, after 18 long months and 29 recorded games, the Mackay Blood Bowl league is closing out its regular season and preparing for the Finals! Schedule issues tend to happen when half your league works in the mines! 

Onto the team themselves. I am proud to report that the Jundheim Jugulars finish at the top of the league with an impressive record of: 17 Wins, 7 Draws, and 5 Losses (though their head coach wont ever let me say that last stat without grumbling something about the league officials being "out to get him and his team". 

The team that was once home to some plucky fledgeling vampires from the frozen lands of Jundheim now houses some true Bloodbowl Legends! 

Most if not all of the Vampires became well known and feared throughout the league (apart from the long lost Vampire Blitzer Baron Silas Sokolov who was taken off and interrogated by league officials to make sure the team's success was legitimate)

Going through the roster, the absolute monster that was the Duke Viktor von Dragoslav was the one in the trenches in mid pitch, cutting down opposing big guys and stomping ball handlers alike because in his own words: "Who needs tackle when I can block with all 3 dice". Duke von Dragoslav finished the season with a considerable 19 casualties, almost all of which were STR 4+ pieces.

The Lady Striga Drachenfeld comfortably wins the "best improved" award for the team as she had a very rocky Round 1 that included a couple MNG and many games spent almost entirely on the bench due to how fragile she was without any skills. However a couple fortunate games against an unprepared Gnome team and a crippled Underworld Denizens gave her the chance she needed to learn the skills required to start mastering her role as a Runner, Catcher, and all around mobile nuisance that she became. Once acquiring the famed "Blodge" combo of skills she was comfortably dancing around the oafs of the league to score touchdown after touchdown. She then thoroughly enjoyed playing the part of annoyance to any and all as she sidestepped and shadowed players around the pitch to make it a monumental task to keep her clear of any spilled ball. Truly you have not lived until you've seen her run halfway down the pitch to catch you in her hypnotic gaze to open wide your teams cage and make way for the Duke and then in a split second she's blowing you a kiss from your own endzone! The Lady Drachenfeld finished the season with an Impressive 20 Touchdowns, making her the 3rd top scorer in the league and just under half of the teams total 51 touchdowns. The absolute embodiment of a pain in the ass on the pitch both offensively and defensively. 

Next is the wonder duo that is the Count Edgar Diedrich III and the Viscount Freidrich Freudenberg V. The two were the all rounders of the team. From the start they've been doing anything and everything the team required of them, whether that be ferrying the ball up the pitch safely, blitzer opposing threats off of eachother, and using their hypnotic gaze to pick apart the opposing offence and making way for the Duke to really open up their opponents. These two started out as simple throwers prepared to launch the ball downpitch for the Lady to swoop up and score, theyve become downright incredible at the running game, especially when paired together. 

1st and 4th on Completions!
Fun Fact: those two completed 51 passes, and the Team scored 51 TDs for the Season!

They themselves developed the teams go to offensive plan of the "Pick and Roll". The Counts would push down one widezone of the pitch with coverage from the Baron, the Duke, and plenty of mobile blood banks Thralls to gum up and defensive efforts, all while the Lady Striga pushed either down the opposite widezone or the center with a thrall or two to keep her company. The defense would be caught in a lose lose situation. Either they give the famed runner the respect she deserves, in which case they put themselves at a numbers disadvantage against the running side and with the impressive stats across the board the Vamps can push through and run in for a touchdown OR they only send one or two to mark Lady Striga and can watch the ball sail over their heads for an easy lobbed touchdown to her waiting hands. This plan became fearsome once both throwers had Dump-Off and Nerves of Steel, meaning that if the defense managed to put up a decent fight and get a punch onto the ball carrier, they just lob it to the other thrower and keep running, basically playing leapfrog as they pass, dodge out, keep moving forward while keeping an eye on the emergency pass across pitch. A genuinely outstanding all round offense. This plan put into practice all throughout the season led the team to many wins and lead Count Edgar Diedrich III to be the League's top passer with 35 completions!

Now the uncontested Star Player of the team, Baron Gregor van Kraus. To put him into the "all-rounder" category would be unfair as he simply excelled in everything. From downing ball carriers (often permanently) with his Block, Tackle, Mighty Blow, to being constantly mobile and being where he needs to be to score touchdowns when players start leaving the pitch with his Dodge and Jump-Up, and re-rolling anything he needs to with Pro. The man if you can still call him that is a total menace and the one getting everything done. Through his ability to do truly anything, he has racked up 14 Touchdowns (Tied #5 for the League) and 24 Casualties (also tied #5 for the League - and the league is 90% bash teams!).There is a reason he won MVP for the team in 18 of the 29 games. He does everything expertly and its no stretch to say the team would struggle without him. A true Bloodbowl legend to rival the mighty Griff Oberwald!

3rd, 5th and 8th in Touchdowns!
I love that the Viscount is on both lists: sometimes he passes and sometimes he wants the glory!

Its been an incredible season with these lads and the Vampires are comfortably one of, if not my favourite teams ive ever played due to this season with them.The ability to flex between bashing gnomes and snotlings to paste to playing keep-away from Trolls and blood crazed Khorne Warriors has made every game and every turn a puzzle that is a true delight to figure out...all with the added fun and mayhem of eating my own team while I do it! This is likely the closest I'll ever get to elves without staining my reputation as a coach but you can best believe i'll be revisiting these boys in the future.

Thats the news Blood Bowl fans! Your fan favourite Jundheim Jugulars with return home victors. Until next time... when news of a brand new team that attempts to copy their success starts to surface...

Coach "Right-Stuff" out!

A visit to Rocket City USA

An AMAZING day yesterday at the NASA Marshall Space Centre in Huntsville, Alabama - also known as "Rocket City" for being the engineering powerhouse of the US Space Race and the Saturn project in particular.

How's that for a poetic shot!

To make the trip even more special, I went with a posse of colleagues which included two current rocket scientists, and met two living legends who worked on the Saturn V project back in the day. They told us "Houston only worried about the human part of the system - we did the real work" :-)

And so, this post is unapologetic pic spam! (and is about 2% of what I took)

This is the US Army Redstone Rocket - the first derivative from the German V2 rocket by the German team (BTW we met another NASA guy who was in the Shuttle program, who told me that as a lad he lived next to Dr von Braun in Huntsville, where all the German team were located. With such inspiration no wonder we became a rocket engineer!)

This is the PGM-19 JUPITER Medium Range Ballistic Missile which was used my NASA for suborbital biological test flights with monkeys.  And from these two was derived the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle

The first successful launch was in late 1960, and Alan Shepard was taken aloft as the the first American astronaught in May 61. "The Mercury 7 were great guys but really just rode it as ballast' the Saturn V vets told us! :-)

The heavy lift capability program commenced in 1958. Initially called the JUNO V, the team at Huntsville just started referring to it as SATURN because "its the one after JUPITER" and it eventually became official!

"You use what you've got to solve problems" our 87yr old NASA veteran told us. "So to save retooling costs and time, we strapped a bunch of Redstone rockets around a Juno fuel tank to make a first stage and it seemed to go ok". The first Saturn 1 was launched in late 1961.  

The "rocket park" was inspiring and the exhibits are in showcase condition 

The Marshall Centre has other exhibits including US Army missiles designed and built at the Defence facility next door, including the "Nike Hercules", "Corporal", "Honest John" and "Spartan". 

Not in quite the same condition and while interesting, something else had caught my eye and was drawing me in....

OK, this one is a 1:1 scale replica standing proud outside but inside the building next to it...

This was originally built for the Apollo 19 Mission and is one of only three Saturn V Launch Vehicles remaining in existence - the others are a Kennedy Space Centre (Cape Canaveral) and Johnson Space Centre (Houston). Now I've seen two - one to go!

Pic of this Rocket from Wikipedia to give a different perspective

The business end! The outer R1 engines could gimble up to 5 degrees each while the centre one is fixed. Together they burned 6,000 pounds of fuel per second!

These were our hosts for the day and we were amazed for 3 solid hours as they rattled of data, design principles and many personal anecdotes. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to shake their hands and hear their stories.

One such story went along the lines of "It was getting very busy to control the spacecraft and manage all the inputs, so we decided to invent the first digital computer" (!) Partnered with IBM, it was designed with electromagnets, where North orientation was 1 and South was 0. So the first digital computer was made by employing local seamstresses to sew magnets with copper wire to build a whopping 144kb capacity weighing 88lbs.

As if that wasn't enough, there is also this treasure - Command Module Casper from the Apollo 16 mission and which orbited the moon 72 times in 1972

This capsule and its crew, John Young, Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke, were recovered by USS Ticonderoga in the Pacific Ocean near Kiribati

The collection of astronaught training equipment here was also outstanding

Closeup of the driver's console and instrumentation

The LEM trainer was also very cool - I hadn't seen this before. This first pic is a close up of the instrumentation, while the second puts it into context.

Now imagine you're trying to move around, with your crew buddy, in a full space suit!

And finally, as you exist; where it all began - the V2 rocket

Cool mockup in the carpark next to the adjacent "Space Camp". I like that its called Pathfinder, which was used in the Apple TV Series For All Mankind 

An unforgettable and inspiring day

https://www.nasa.gov/marshall/

Stuka Ace: Russia Missions 4-6

7 July 1941

Like every day of the campaign thus far, the morning brief started precisely at 0415 when the Staffel Operations Leutnant cleared his throat. Immediately, the tent filled with the noise of every flieger clearing their throats in comradely imitation. It had become their morning ritual, accompanied by smiles over steaming mugs. Grinning back, the Leutnant inclined his head and started:

“Mein Herr and meine Herren, 

Weather will be clear this morning with increasing cloud at 5000 and 10000 feet, with likely storms later this morning when a front will start to impact our sector. Weather will then improve from noon.

Our first target is a Soviet airfield NE of Polotsk – approaching the limit of our effective range. Intelligence reports the VVS operating MiG-3s and I-16s that redeployed from the East. We need to render the base inoperable to retain air superiority in our area.  Staffel munitions will be SC1000s and standard mix of 500 and 50kg fragmentation bombs.

On return the Staffel is ordered to rearm and launch again immediately to strike a suspected artillery position much closer to their currenet operating base. Same mixed ordnance loadouts.

Fighter cover for both sorties will again be provided, but from on will be Me 109s. Our friends from ZG26 have now been assigned to ground-attack missions until further notice, to make up for losses in the bomber force.

Afternoon strike window is on call targets for the Panzers, who are scheduled to recommence offensive operations from 1200.  Supply columns had had a hard time keeping up and they are paused this morning awaiting refuelling. Fivos will be available with lead formations.

Maintenance reports two crates remain down: the wing repairs for White 9 are expected to be complete by lunchtime and ready for a test flight, but the carburettor rebuild on White 6 is awaiting parts.

Daily recognition signals and frequency allocations are available for radiomen to collect from the communications desk, as usual”

The Leutnant lowered his papers and stepped back, deferring to Andreas who stood to address them.

“Guten Morgen Kammeraden – welcome to another lovely day in Russia! 

We know what we’re about so lets get to it. We need to take out that airfield or the rest of the day will be harder than it needs to be. We hit it- and hit it hard! And then we can get onto our core business of hitting Russians from above. Lets be about it!”

75 minutes later Andreas levelled off his Berta at 10,000 feet, 5 other Stukas sliding quickly into formation around him. The dawn air was crisp and clear and he could clearly make out the promised Luftwaffe fighter cover 5,000 feet above him to the NW. 

It was a good start to what he knew would be another long day. Just like France and Greece, his Staffel was flying multiple combat missions every day, interrupted only by the need to leap frog to new operating airfields to keep up with the Panzers. The Gruppe’s ground crews struggled to make these moves over the poor Russian roads and only the British trucks and they had captured in Greece enabled them to keep up.

The sky remained clear of the enemy but the promised storm was developing well ahead of schedule. Dark clouds advanced, a thick cloud base developed blow them and visibility grew dim. Voss cursed, knowing this would impact their strike on an important target. By the time the neared the target, the rain had begun to fall.

The Red Air Force had set out improvised strips next to a permanent base that had already been punished from the air. Concrete runways remained cratered and torn, but some infrastructure remained intact to service the adjacent grass strips. Voss signalled his formation - they winged over in close succession to began their diving attacks.

Voss was determined that his 1000kg bomb would go where it would have the most effect and lined up with what looked like a collection of refuelling trucks. Russian AA fire zipped past the cockpit and Milo reported it was all bursting behind them.

As Voss pulled out of his dive a bright blast blossomed behind them, followed by huge plume of dark smoke reaching for the sky.

“That was a good one Andrei!” Mile whooped. “Ivan will feel that for awhile!”

The radio crackled: “White 7 hit by AA fire. Wing damaged, and I missed the target. Aircraft remains flyable – just – and able to maintain formation”

“Copy Stimpl, lets get you back home. Stay close” Voss replied.

It was easier said than done. A difficult headwind slowed their progress and Leutnant Rohr in White 2 reported his engine was running roughly, likely the result of ground fire during the attack. Then the Messerschmidt flight leader also reported he was moving to intercept a Russian closing in from behind them, but neither Voss nor any of his pilots saw the enemy fighter. Again Voss counted his blessing for the Luftwaffe’s ability to provide him dedicated escort protection.

Soviet MiG-3 destroyed on the ground, 1941

Back on the ground, a frenzy of fuel hoses and bomb carts quickly began turning the Stukas around for their next mission. An NCO yelled out and a dozen men quickly pushed White 6 to the side of the airfield, her wing damage evident and taking her out of the fight for now. Within 30 minutes, Voss was taking off once again, looking for the Russian artillery.

Targets like this were frustrating. Without accurate targeting support from the ground, the relatively mobile artillery positions were hard to find. The position had been estimated from a combination of counter artillery plotting, intelligence assessments and a large slice of guesswork. Voss didn’t like leading men into danger reliant on guesswork, informed though it may be.

The summer storm front had passed but the dark clouds and showers behind it continued to make looking for a concealed cannons like looking for needles in a haystack. Then to Voss’s surprise they started firing, revealing their position at the edge of a wood! Probably 122mm guns, he thought. They might be poorly led or have no fuel to relocate but whatever the case, Andreas had a target to attack and quickly led his men in.

The lack of AA defence was also surprising. A single MG reached up toward them but it was sporadic and wild, fired by a desperate gunner. Still, the artillery positions themselves were hard to make out along the tree line in the dim visibility. 

One by one the Stukas dropped their mix of 500kg and 50kg bombs amongst the positions but Voss only saw one gun destroyed and few secondary explosions. At least it would stop them from firing on the German army for awhile.

----------------

Landing to again refuel and rearm, a Feldwebel from Operations was waiting next to Andreas’s aircraft as soon as he shut down, beckoning him to follow as he handed over a mess tin of kaffe. Milo gave him a surly look when he saw that he Feldwebel had only one cup. Andreas tossed back half of the lukewarm but welcome fluid and handed the rest to rest to Milo as he ducked into the Operations tent.  Inside, the Leutnant was to the point.

“Reconnaissance Storch visited the airfield you hit the morning. There were some good hits but Ivan is cleaning up and its estimated to have 50% remaining capability. We have to go back and finish the job.  Me 109 fighter escort will be available from 1230hrs”

Voss nodded quietly, looking at the tactical map on the wall. Not much had changed. With some adjustments to their ingress routes this mission could be turned around quickly. He accepted some additional updates while chewing on a sandwich that had appeared from nowhere. Looking at the flying roster, he gave some directions to collect the necessary pilots for a brief. He would bring the Rookie crew in White 10 this afternoon, it was time get them some more experience.

-----------------

Formed up once again, Voss turned his Staffel North East toward the target. Conditions were clearing after the storm passing through that morning. Voss hoped the improved visibility would continue to help their re-attack on the airfield. He was looking up through a break in the clouds when he saw a telltale glint off a canopy. Was that their fighter escort taking up position? And was did it appear to be a single rather than the usual Schwarm? No - it was a Soviet fighter diving down on them!

Voss alerted his staffel to commence evasive manoeuvre while he tried to radio the fighter flight leader. The Luftwaffe fighters had been delayed with a collapsed wheel during take off – they were red lining their engines to be there in 2 mins. It would be a long two minutes.

Voss could now clearly identify the outline of the MiG as it swooped in from the starboard side – right into White 10. Voss was pleased to see that the green pilot Jenster wasn’t panicking, didn’t turn toward his wingmates to risk collision, and didn't scream out over the radio. The MiG opened fire at long range, tracer stitching along White 10's wing as it dived away and returned fire with its own rear gun.

Then the MiG was peeling off, a pair of 109s thundering after it.

"How are you Jenster? Everything still where it should be?" Voss asked, able to keep the concern mostly from his voice. If Jenster could play it cooly, it was the least he could do to return it.

"Jahowl Mein Herr! Starboard wing is a bit beat up but Ludwig and me are OK. Proceeding on mission"

"Sehr Gut Kurt!" Voss replied, smiling under his mask.

Voss reported the contact to his fighter escorts, who tucked in tight like protective mothers, embarrassed to have let the MiG slip through. Voss knew it wouldn't happen again.

Voss recognised the airfield immediately when it came into view. It looked like additional fuel bowsers had been brought in amongst the burnt out aircraft and service vehicles. Visibility was better but residual fires still put smoke into the air, but Voss and his team kew this target and went directly into the attack. Their dives were good and their hits accurate, none more than White 10.  Despite their inexperience, and the wing damage and stress from the MiG encounter earlier, Jenster was showing he wasn't a pilot to be written off easily.

"Great job everyone - and well done Jenster! If your Kettenfuhrer doesnt buy you a drink tonight for that one I certainly will! Lets go home"

The trip home was quiet, anti-climatic. A curious I-16 tried to close them from the south and was chased down angrily by the Me 109s. Voss smiled, then sighed, knowing that another mission awaited them after they landed. He hoped there would be time for lunch before the next sortie.

---------------------

Game notes

Tried something a bit different with this write up, collecting multiple games and linking them together to try and show a high tempo of flight operations. It made the entry longer though, so thanks for persevering.

It also allowed me to link in a series of poor weather conditions into a single event – seems funny to have so many storm in Summer but there you are. Because Storm of Steel uses event cards to generate weather, the chance of storms is the same in Summer as it is in Winter. 

Test Scorpion

Fun to get some paint on my first model in 10 months. It always amazes me how quickly hobby skills degrade! Also a bit of a shock to go from big chonky primaris marines to far more reasonably scaled and lithe Eldar :-)

Overall he came out well but the overall look is a bit more lime green than the saturated I was going for, and a bit more patchy than I expected.  Think I will swap the gems to red for contrast and need some more yellow on the accents.

Basing - considering jungle style for the stealth theme (nice excuse to try out the AK Dark Earth basing mix!)

Modelling Notes

Undercoat- Vallejo Grey (brush on)

Body Basecoat: 1988 era Striking Scorpion Green

            - Some Drucchi Violet pin washing in shadow areas

            - Pin wash of Vallejo Green ink

            Highlight Moot Green

            Edge highlight 1988 era Bilious green

Metallics - Black basecoat / Leadbelcher / Black wash,  Retributor / Agrax wash

Leather - basecoat vallejo Leather brown (871), GW Tuskgor highlights

Eyes - Mephiston Red, Lugganath Orange pupils

Stuka Ace: Russia Mission 3

30 June 1941 - the Minsk encirclement

The scale of the war was hard to comprehend, and Andre found himself getting lost in the detail. Even without accounting for the flanking the Army Groups, the pace of operations in Army Group Centre was challenging to keep a grip upon. The race by the 3rd and 2nd Panzer groups to encircle their first objectives was nearing completion, and almost 300 thousand Russian soldiers were now isolated from the rest of their army. 

The mobility of the Panzers, enabled by the Luftwaffe close support like Stukas, really could do amazing things in the hands of experienced commanders who knew what they were doing. And Andres' Staffel, like everyone in the Gruppe and the Fliegerkorps for that matter, were flying at maximum rate of effort.  In the last week they had pounded targets ahead of the 3rd Panzergruppe, enabling the capture of Vilnius, Lida and now closing on Minsk. Surely the Russians couldn't keep up this rate of loss.

Peering closer at the map, Voss noted that the lead unit attacking the "Minsk Fortified Region", as the Soviets called it, was the 12th Panzer Division. He smiled, knowing his brother would be proud to be at the very front of the drive into Russia. Before that could turn to worry, he turned his mind to today's tasks.

Their first target was a bit different: a Soviet Command Post, likely belonging to the 13th Army by the signals intercepts from its transmissions. Radios were uncommon in the Red Army so this a major formation HQ. The 13th Army posed a risk to the Panzer units completing the Minsk encirclement. If they could be disrupted from the air, the Panzers would have an easier time breaching the next line. It was a long flight, but Voss was confident they could do it.

Voss looked around him and checking the formation again for the second time in 2 minutes and searching the sky for enemy aircraft. Scanning didn't keep the MiGs away, but not scanning ensured that any of them there would kill you. Unteroffizier Saunders in White 4 was lagging again. He was an experienced pilot with an unfortunate tendency to get lazy, especially on long trips.

The Soviet fighter ripped through the formation without any warning. The first Voss knew was the shouts of alarm on the radio and the sight of tracer zipping past his aircraft from behind. Voss didn't even get a good look at it before it was gone, diving back into the building rain cloud before any German fighter escorts could react. Saunders was loudest on the radio, clearly badly rattled.

"Calm down White 4" Voss ordered, hoping that radio protocol would help restore discipline.

"Came from behind, never even saw him! Cant see any damage but he must have got me somewhere - he must have!"

Saunders' Kette leader broke in and talked him through the instruments, the repetition helping to calm him. Voss lets the dialogue wash over him as he focused on navigating their way to the target. 

The rain clouds were menacing now, threatening a full storm front not expected at the meteorological brief that morning. Voss was trying to work out a way around it without exceeding their endurance or blundering into another strike zone, when the rattle of machine fire jerked his head around.

An I-16 was barrelling in from the opposite side of the formation and White 4, exposed as tail end charlie, broke off and away to evade. The Soviet pilot was on Saunders' Stuka in a second, hammering it with its two wing mounted machine guns.

Voss watched helplessly as the Stuka caught fire, turned over and began a death dive.

He had a glimmer of hope when he saw the canopy open and a figure leap out from the front pilot position. But only the single parachute bloomed. Voss used a grease pencil to mark the position on the map. Well behind enemy lines.

Satisfied with its kill, the I-16 peeled away and disappeared.

"Close up the formation - proceed to Target" he ordered. He had nothing else to say.

At the target zone, Voss quickly found the antenna farm of the Headquarters. It had been hastily erected and poorly concealed. Marking that target for his own bomb run, he directed his pilots to find their own and focused on putting his 1000kg bomb right on target.

AA fire reached up toward the attacking Stukas- a mix of 40mm and 76mm calibre. It was barrage fire, not accurate. These gunners had yet to get experience firing at manoeuvring targets. All the better, Voss thought as he kept his dive on target and released the big bomb right on target, knowing it would fly true to obliterate the delicate antenna facility.

At 12,000 feet the Stukas regrouped and Voss turned them for home- deeply conscious of the missing plane. Nobody had trouble maintaining focus on the long, silent flight home.

That night in the operations tent, the Gruppenkommandeur listened quietly as Voss delivered his verbal report. The map pins were moving east — Minsk was almost surrounded — but he saw the weary lines around Voss’s eyes. “You’re down a machine,” he said flatly. Voss nodded. “And a crew.”

"Losses are inevitable Andreas, but that doesn't make them easy. You know this. The others need you too". Voss nodded, knowing it was true. Somehow that made it a little bit worse.

Later, Voss stood quietly and looked at the new wooden cross next to the one they had planted less than a week before. This one bore the name of White 5's gunner, Gefrieter Jakob Fernanz. An hour ago, Voss had signed the signal message declaring Uffz Leohard Saunder Missing, likely captured, after being shot down behind Soviet lines.

3 men lost in a week. He didn't know about the Russians but he knew his Staffel couldnt sustain such losses.

----------

HQ Range 6

2 x SC-1000

W1, Kette 1, W8

1- nil, nil

2-intercept from nowhere!  W4+5CS

3-rain,

4-storm, 1xI-16 W4 fire! pilot bailout (POW), gunner KIA

5- hgeadwind! no effect

6- target. Mdm AA  W3+1CS, W8+1CS(flight leader used) 

W1-100, W2-30, W4-40, W8-miss (Ave 42)

5 - nil

4- mech failure W1, ok. 1 x MiG3 - chased off

3-tailwind!

2-nstr

1. nstr

landing nstr

score 

August Hobby Update

Amongst the solo boardgaming I've been doing of late, this week I dipped my toe back into some tabletop hobbying. After 10 months without doing any, it was good to get the sprue clippers and glue out again.

This time it was building some Eldar Striking Scorpions for Kill Team - only need 8 figs so I figured this was worth some fun, and the painting style is very different to my usual one so it will be good to try some different techniques.

These are the first Eldar figs I have bought since the original metal ones came out in 1992 while I was at University. I bought a few packs - all I could afford at the times but not enough for an army and the figs got lost when I moved house

I even found my original Citadel Colours Striking Scorpion Green - think I've had this since the late 80s? early 90s. Whenever it was. Clearly I'm obligated to use it for its intended purpose!