Chromedog tries his hand at One Page Rules.

[chromedog]

Had a game of OPR's "Grim Dark Firefight" a while back, and it reminded me of the fun I used to have with 40k, with none of the baggage of that game.  
So I dug my old Eldar out, and have been repurposing it into "High Elf Fleets" ... When I downsized my collection a few years back, I sold off a chunk of my RT/2nd ed eldar - so I set about replacing them.  Managed to get some of the newer plastic sculpts for scorpions and spiders via a friend in the UK and saved a bit of money that way. 
All of these models will be on MAS "Ancient ruins" bases, because I had a bag of them laying around. 

So, WIP on my unit of "Stingers" (OPR Striking Scorpions).  Found an old 1990 vintage Scorpion missing an arm, so I took advantage of the spare parts.
As is usual with GW, they give you enough legs to only make a certain number of models, but they give you torsos and arms to make a couple more (these are usually "optional upgrade" versions ... but still.).  So I used a spare Dire Avenger exarch body, gave him another spare chainsword, and mounted a shuriken pistol to his vambrace.  Also gave him a scorp helm.  Painted green, he will fill in the ranks.   There are another 10 of them in the works.  I need a day of no rain so I can get them primed.
The other one is my first Warp Spider in about 30ish years.  I only ever had 5 of the metal ones - all 3 "trooper" sculpts, a duplicate and an exarch.  My new "Shifter" for OPR.  There's another 4 of his fellow skitterers coming.  I still have to do some gems on this guy.  

The bases will all get a top drybrushing of a bleached bone colour.  I've used some of the basing bits that come with the kits on them to level the models up a bit (also to allow me to add some pinning).  The bases also add about 50% more mass to them, so a stray breeze doesn't waft them off the table.

[chromedog]

Atrax the Glistening Fang, Exarch of my Shifter squad, just popping in to deliver a killing blow.  A few more little details to finish up on him.
The new spiders HAVE to be assembled and painted in sub-assemblies (otherwise the inside of the warp jump generator backpack, and the back of their suits can't be painted.  So I've currently got 4 of them partially assembled so I can spray prime them.   

I've also learned you have to glue the arms and weapons ON, then the backpack.  The ruins bits that the kit comes with do help with getting a solid bond to the resin bases I'm using, though (more stuff to pin through).

[Plasman]

Ey my man! I've been playing OPR for a while, just to get the old 40k minis going for a good time without the headache and disappointment of the latest gw rules!

[chromedog]

Yesterday, 10 minutes before I had to head off to a medical appointment, I managed to spill the entire pot of baal red contrast paint.
My painting desk looked like a crime scene.
Like John Wick had walked up behind me while I was painting and redecorated.  

Edited August 26, 2025 by chromedog

[chromedog]

The Stingers are getting there.  
Exarch of the hidden blade shrine and 5 of his best warriors in progress.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2025 by chromedog

[Plasman]

Yes but have ya had any GAMES?

[chromedog]

6 hours ago, Plasman said:

Yes but have ya had any GAMES?

What is this "games" thing you speak of?

I buy, I build, I paint ... sometimes I get games in, but it is by far and wide, the weakest leg on that table ...  
I plan to have a game sometime soon, but CoD's days clash with my obligations for the most part - and my local club's venue is closed for renovations.  The one local I could get a game with is currently on holidays OS.  
I don't have space at home to play and Newcastle is very much a GW hamlet with dreams of one day becoming a village (It's easier to herd cats than to get many of the locals into playing something other than GW)

[chromedog]

Woo-hoo!
There's now a local group for this game system.  Some of them I've known for years, some a lot longer.  Used to play 40k (and other games) with them.

I got some games in a couple of weekends ago.  I got to use these scorpions ... and they were ... not good.

1000 pts of my High Elf Fleets v Alien Hives - and learned that quite a few units have changed a bit in the rules edition change.   Scorpions are not as good as they once were (not in the bigger game anyway.  They still work well in firefight).  I got pasted but secured a draw with what remained.  Objectives stay 'taken' until the enemy captures them - so you can grab an objective and move off it to grab another if there are no enemy units close enough to take it.

The second game, the Alien hive player and I teamed up against marines and knights.  We eked out a win, there - I had a unit of Avengers run up and grab an objective on my last activation.  

Jetbikes ROCK!   Characters on jetbikes are even harder.  (Tough bonuses stack.  So a T(3) on a jetbike (T3) goes to Tough(6) - essentially that many extra wounds).
Wraith units are HAF.  Whether the 'guard or 'lord doesn't matter.  They all have tough(x) and the Wraithlord is as tough as a tank to kill.

In the meantime, I've painted up an Inquisition fire-fight team.  These are my old 40k3rd ed Inquisition models.  The inquisitor with book is a newer conversion (got the book in a bag of bits - the inquisitor was one of the stock ones from 3rd ed (he had a bolter and a sword and mostly bare arms).  He bears the sacred tome with the mark of the blessed vessel (coffee mug stain).  The holy tome of "It doesn't say I *CAN'T* do it.".
The enhanced doggo comes from the OOP Mongoose Starship Troopers line (K-9 units).
The riot-troopers were converted old 2nd ed marine scouts.  The gun-borg is just a stock gun-servitor (one of the 8 or 9 that I have - I have all of the different gun ones from HB to Melta and Plasma, and the cc variants as well).

Edited November 29, 2025 by chromedog

[chromedog]

The forces of the inquisition have themselves a dropship.

GW Stormraven with a Capt_Magpie "BigBurd" extension kit (Thingiverse .stl).  Gives some much needed chonk to the "all balcony, no back porch" model.
Fits very neatly into the space, only needs a little gap-filling (which for a GW model+3rd party parts thing, is a rarity).  The X mounting for the flight stand is also a good fit.

I'll be adding a C3 suite in the extended section (behind one side hatch) using some screen bits I've got left from other kits (think flying Aliens APC).  The other side will have a gun rack.   
I'm not using the dorsal airscoop or turret.  I may magnetise the weapons.
The front upper hull isn't glued yet.  The pilot hasn't been done yet, either.  I want to do the pilot as a sub assembly so he can just slot in.  

[Plasman]

Mate that looks sick!

[chromedog]

Thanks.  Had a friend print the bits for me (I have enough friends with printers that I don't really need one).

I picked up the model at Moab last year - I remembered in days of yore, that there were resin kits you could get that extended it (like the chapterhouse one) and I found some templates that I could use to make it if I wanted to break out my stock of 1.5mm styrene sheet - but then I saw a youtube video about "fixing the stormraven" and it used this particular set of parts.

So I asked a friend.  

I've also got some spare bits to cover up that area where the dorsal scoop goes.  
 

[Plasman]

I've now promised myself one, but I have to finish my plastic Arvus Lighter first. Another flyer I fell in love with the look of back in forgeworld days and finally bought the plastic kit last year only to 4/5 complete it...

Edited February 21 by Plasman

[chromedog]

17 hours ago, Plasman said:

I've now promised myself one, but I have to finish my plastic Arvus Lighter first. Another flyer I fell in love with the look of back in forgeworld days and finally bought the plastic kit last year only to 4/5 complete it...

I have a FW resin Arvus (got it 2nd hand of WAU, it was authentic with all of the warpage one expects from shoddy third-rate UK "premium" casting house.)

I extended the cockpit to a 2 seater (yes, this meant I had to add another seat AND extend the canopy, too).  The wings were horribly warped so I fabricated some new ones and added a mechanical wing hinge (so they pivot up/down).  Bigger wings meant bigger vertical stabiliser, too (donated from the 4th ed crashed shuttle terrain piece)

[korocite]

Nice effort! It’s a great conversion. 

[chromedog]

I assembled it for my "501st" (star wars) themed Space Marine army - which is why it has the trifoil wings styling (and why the wings fold up, not down).
I stopped playing 40k a couple of years later.  

Scale comparison of the extended Stormraven with a Valkyrie and the Aeldari Crimson Hunter fighter.  
It's now about the same length as the Valkyrie - but the passenger compartment is much bigger - as would be expected for something that has to transport 10 7' tall armour-plated instruments of Imperial oppression.   It used to only come to the end of the Valk passenger compartment.

[chromedog]

On the heels of this ...  Yes, I'm aware there are several projects "in motion" and I'm juggling them.  My opr group has moved onto a slow grow for fantasy ... so I'm switching tack.

My club (Newcastle Legion, home of "Castle Assault", the almost-legendary beer+mandollies gaming weekends  😄 ) is running a one-day 2nd ed 40k tourney back to back with a 2 day mordheim event next weekend.  1500pts, but we have a 2w cap on characters, and a 50pt wargear limit as well (so my Army "general" is a Dark Reaper Exarch with shuriken cannon and DR rangefinder (gives him +1 to hit, ignores penalties for "fast moving" targets).

I only ever got to play about 6 or so games of 2nd ed back in the day (the games club I knew about at the time, was on saturdays and I worked saturdays for the better part of 5 years), so I'm dragging the eldar out of 40k retirement and giving them a go.   
Unfortunately for me, I sold off a chunk of the RT/2nd ed stuff I had a bit over 10 years ago.   So, when I was getting into OPR for them, I had to replace them (and for the most part, used modern replacements).  So the swooping hawks and warp spiders aren't OG.  [I've since been offered some OG models
The Guardians are mostly as they were for the last 10-15 years.  The War walkers got stripped and repainted (and I even added the pennants).   These originally had weapons glued into those mounts.  After their acetone bath, those weapons were freed up, and I managed to install magnets in them, so I could freely swap out weapons as needed.  The weapons platform has a D-cannon (and is a separate unit from the guardians - of which there are TWO units of 6)
 

Edited May 18 by chromedog

[chromedog]

Those are enlarged jetbike pennants, btw.  I had a scan of some old ones from years ago, and just printed them at a larger size, then folded and trimmed them down.  

[chromedog]

So, we had 10 players at our little tournament.  I came 5th.  

In my FIRST EVER 2nd ed tournament.   

Warp spiders are *tha BOMB*. 
Swooping hawks leaping over enemy troops and just dropping grenade rain on them never gets old.    
Dark Reapers hitting stuff on 2+ (if it's out of cover) is mental.   Watching marines evaporate from krak missiles never gets old (they're only a -3 to their armour save, so they save on 6's)

[Krefey]

On 5/26/2026 at 6:01 PM, chromedog said:

So, we had 10 players at our little tournament.  I came 5th.  

In my FIRST EVER 2nd ed tournament.   

Warp spiders are *tha BOMB*. 
Swooping hawks leaping over enemy troops and just dropping grenade rain on them never gets old.    
Dark Reapers hitting stuff on 2+ (if it's out of cover) is mental.   Watching marines evaporate from krak missiles never gets old (they're only a -3 to their armour save, so they save on 6's)

Who doesn't like dropping heavy flamer templates that wound based on initiative?

 

I do miss 2nd ed sometimes.

[Plasman]

I went and got the big fan collated version of 2nd ed printed and bound last year, but I'll never get around to playing it I'm sure. And I'm not old enough to have ever played it!

Edited Sunday at 11:38 AM by Plasman

[chromedog]

It helps that we're playing with club-based DBAD rules.  "Don't Be A D*ck".

Virus outbreak strat card is out.
Limits on wounds and wargear for characters (2w - Eldar armies must be led by a Warlock or Exarch - Avatars, Farseers and Phoenix lords are out).

That said - a swooping hawk exarch with wings & grenade pack, power sword/laspistol and a flamer with "turn aside blow" skill can do a lot of damage.   
(I converted up the exarch to have the lasblaster OR a flamer option (magnets) - using a finecast flamer from the 2006 iteration of the fire dragon exarch, so I could be WYSIWYG with the model.  

But that said, orks with pulsa rokkits are busted.  😄 

[Krefey]

I loved my pulsa rokkits in 2nd ed.  So much fun XD  And I got really good at guess ranges with the squig catapult too