Irregular Wars Wargaming

Using up a bit of leave from work, I was able to finish up the last (latest) two minis for The Flores Minor Ranger Corp, the Skipper and Psych. Here is the whole detachment ready for a Galactic Scuffle to defend Flores and bite some knees off. Skipper is a lovely little sculpt from Max Mini with an impressively augmented fist and a power sword. Psych is a halfling psychic from Four A Miniatures. She looks a little like she's just remembered something crucial, but maybe that's just her way to mess with her enemies...

Finding a few unexpectedly unoccupied moments recently, I've returned to Flores Minor and painted up three more cannon fodder rangers, Beast, Chief, and Rebel.  Like most of the Ranger Corps, Beast and Rebel are 'proper' GW ratlings with converted weapons. I have to say that there is something about Rebel which make me think he should be protecting a princess on a diplomatic mission -  hence the call sign. Chief is a Max Mini model with a head and weapon swap. I can now field two four-ranger fire teams, each with an NCO with automatic pistol and grenades, two shotguns and a heavy machine gun (of diverse appearances). I love that they are all unique models, but I have pretty much run out of first generation ratlings, so options for expanding too much further will be limited.

A second demi-marine is ready to join the Flores Minor Ranger Corps - my space halflings of various origins. She is another cut-down-to-size Games Workshop Mark VI space marine with some gentle conversion using green stuff and random bits from the bits box.  Together with Bunker, she marks a small side project to add to my space halflings with a few more wee chaps and chapesses. When times are rough, halflings can always be relied on to lighten the mood! More to come in due course.

Its a difficult time of the year, and if  wargaming was food, then halflings provide the perfect comfort food. Built as a bit of light relief, and yet providing some heavy support, callsign 'Bunker' is the latest asset to join the Flores Minor Ranger Corps. This wee chap is a converted Mark VI Horus Heresy spacemarine, cut down to size and rebuilt with greenstuff and a Max Mini halfling head.  Scale comparison of Bunker along with some brave colleagues (classic 90's GW ratlings) from the Flores Minor Ranger Corps. The FMRC have previously seen some hot combat using the This is Not a Test rule set, and when a hard copy of the 2nd edition is available, they may well again. I do intend, however, for them to take up arms and test out a few sci-fi mods for Fantastic Scuffles as well. Look at the little guy being all small!

Every so often, as a palate cleanser, I return to my Érineach Preservers, custodians of the craic in the grim dark future. Born of nostalgia, raised on whiskey, and released onto the galaxy, these subversive space marines bring me a combination of joy, satisfaction, self-loathing, and a wonder at how many potential wargamers have been put off over the years by edge highlighting and panel lining space marines!? Here are the latest additions to the little battle force - previous posts can be found  October 2023 ,  November 2023 , and  February 2024 . Initially built with This is Not a Test  in mind, I now have far more than I could ever use for that. Nostalgia draws me back to the one true edition of Warhammer 40,000 - 2nd edition, but I'm not yet convinced it would be worth the effort of tracking down all the books when there are several very viable alternatives out there. Sure, won't we see in due course?!

Taking a slight detour from the painting schedule, I added a sixth Mark VI preserver to my beaky marine squad this weekend.  A little background for the rest of the squad was given back in October 2023 . Now, a heavy-weapon toting chappie joins the crew as Brother F. I already have a wee tech support asset and a scout sniper  and another five 40K 2nd edition scouts that can be scrounged out of the bits box if I ever need to add them. I'm not sure when they will see action. I have very little interest in what 40K has become over the last 25 years really. Ideally I'd like to use them in an over-sized game of This is Not a Test   at some point, but should the need ever arise, I also now have enough painted marines for a Kill Team.

Taking a quick detour back to the wasteland, I have added three more warriors to the Bedtime's Children, my growing tribal warband for This is Not a Test . All three are slightly large 28mm miniatures from Hasslefree. At this point I am running out of strictly onesie-wearing options, so have relented to allow models with alternative evening attire.  Sam is a sinewy chap with Y-fronts and a fireman fetish. He also has a handy fire axe which will help. Raz keeps it real with a relaxed style in her unicorn onesie, slippers and massive tool. Kitty, however, has other nocturnal pursuits in mind when she dons her evening wear. The tribe now has 12 members and three warbeasts. If I see any other suitable recruits I'll pick them up, but what I'm really after now is some sort of animatronic bear to serve as a depend-o-bot.

After a few weeks where I was unable to paint due to the house being painted and being away for with family and work, I've managed to grab a few hours this weekend to finish off some stuff that has been sitting half done, eyeing me impatiently. First up, to support characters for my  Érineach Preservers . Asset F is a more lightly armoured preserver with sniper rifle, ready to provide some long-range precision to the unit. He is a 40K 2nd edition Space Marine scout (c.1998?) that I picked up cheaply on eBay. I have another clutch of scouts of the same generation on standby in case I ever need more  non-power armoured characters in the force. And a wee cyborg gruagach providing tech-support. I love this little chap from CP models! I tried to weather and scratch up his power-clamp-fist to make it look like he's been doing a whole lot of clamping. Hopefully it will still work when needed!

The first and last time I painted GW space marines was in 1993 - 30 years ago. They were 1992 mark VI 'beaky' marines - the first sci-fi miniatures I ever painted. So when JB showed me his 2022 Horus Heresy army recently, I mumbled something about all the nostalgic feels. JB then generously pushed a spare sprue into my hands. He's like that! So two weeks later, here is my second ever attempt at painting the nostalgic beaky bastards. I'm rather pleased with the result. I've no intention of painting a 30/40K army, but these gents will be used for something sometime. Most likely as a preservers warband for This is Not a Test . Nicknamed the Érineach Preservers, they have an Irish bent and carry letter identifiers rather than having names panted on bases like my other TNT crews. In TNT , the barter script for a starter warband of elites all wearing power armour would only allow for three models. Powerful I'm sure, but unlikely to win many scenarios! The taoiseach ...

Bedtime's Children - also known as "those onesie-wearing wastland weirdos" - finally have some pets! I have been looking for suitable warbeasts for my growing  This is Not a Test  tribal warband for a while. After a couple of false starts, I settled on these crazy 3D printed mutant bunnies from Yedharo - sold as 'Crazy Rabbit Troops'. Given the Onesies are led by a young teenage psychic, and most of the tribe wear onesies in a variety of unflatering pastels, I figured that some sort of bunny-squigg-soft toy hybrid creatures would work as pets. It is unclear whether the tribe has specially bred them or if Poppet has imagined them into existence? Perhaps they are merely a natural reaction to the end of the world...?

Sarge looked over the shanty town from his rooftop vantage point. After a gruelling campaign, his veteran squad had never been physically stronger. But mentally they were tired - worn down by the endless waves of mutants trying to break their thin blue line. Now they had the mutants on the back foot, but a beast is always most dangerous when cornered. One way or another, the ongoing grudge match would end today. Four their tenth mission, and the last in the FMRC campaign, the stout stunted rangers from Flores Minor faced off against Andrew's Mutants for the final time with the cold vengeance scenario. The FMRC were buoyed from their previous victories and were able to field 10 rangers, a dog, a depend-o-bot, and their two remaining tame hill folk. There were less mutants, only 11 in total, but they had caught the FMRC flat footed. Demo III, Snake Eyes III, and Pup were away on a side mission and would arrive late to the skirmish. Andrew also took a whole lot of luck, and bum rush a...

Mission nine for the Flores Minor Ranger Corps saw them still in the Northern Green Zone, attempting to recover rumoured salvageables from a long-abandoned settlement. Across from them, Andrew's mutants had regrouped and were there for the same salvage. Four counters, marked 2, 3, 4 and 5, were placed along the centre line of the table. The values were hidden from both players, only to be revealed at the end. It cost 1AP to pick up each box or crate of salvage. At the end of the game the players would find out the value of their salvage, getting that many victory points, and 5x the value of recovered barter script.  The table consisted of lots of hard cover ruins and crates, soft cover (but not line of sight blocking) patches of rough scrub, and line of sight blocking trees. On the FMRC side (bottom of the photo), Hotshot was on the hill on the left, Sarge in the scrub in the middle, and Doc and Heavy on the hill on the right. Most of the crew were in two loose groups either side o...