movealongnownothingtoseehere

This is not getting the ACW stuff painted!

2012-02-10T19:56:00.005Z

Ok I know I should be painting ACW figures for next weekends big game, I am well on target and have Sunday pegged as a 'hobby day', this should see me at the point of 'dipping' the figures - actually I paint it on it is easier and far more controllable.

I have managed to avoid undercoating the Executioner that arrived yesterday, that will be the reward for finishing the ACW figures, but I also ordered some more resin bases from eBay, the seller was Startledhedgehog. At £2.50 + postage I thought these would make great scrap counters.

All I did with these was to use my glue gun to tack them to some foamcore and spray black. Once dry I used my normal three colour basing, then painted some bits in metallic shades. A little black wash later and I was happy with them.

I am still giving thought to blast and fire markers, as they are templates I am thinking flat mdf with appropriate paint effects.

February all ready .....

2012-02-07T17:58:00.002Z

My painting has been focussed on finishing my ACW forces before our all day game in two weeks, the cavalry repaints are practically ready for varnish, just a little to do on the horses.

I managed to swap my spare card less Santiago model on the Wyrd forum for a crooked man so I squeezed in a little Malifaux painting.

First up is an extra from the GW plastic giant, thought it would be a useful scenic item, it has been lurking on the painting table so I gave it a little attention.

Here's the Crooked Man, he was already painted, I repainted most to make him fit with my own models, he was also on a resin base, I have used broken slate chips like on my Bette Noire.

Next up lots of ACW models, after that 15mm US vehicles.

Lame blog post of the week

2012-01-31T20:07:00.003Z

I am currently cracking on with the ACW figures for the next big game, my Tamiya Olive Drab came today so I will get the airbrush out at the weekend.

Meanwhile I have swapped my mispacked Santiago figure for a 'Crooked Man', whilst I wait for him to come I have made two 'Shafted' markers.

Nothing complicated, just some 30mm bases with filler and sand around the edge.

Next counters will be dynamite!

Minicon 2012

2012-01-29T17:47:00.003Z

Today was the inaugural Minicon event in Gloucester, a gaming event focusing on games rather than trade. The hall was a reasonable size with two side rooms and a bar.

We took our "Death of the Prince" game, with simplified rules so it could be played in a hour or so, we got four games during the day, with a great day had by all.

Here's a couple of in game shots from during the day.

Here's a shot Redditch Wargames Society's excellent Cutlass table.

I also got to play Operation Squad, a WW2 squad based skirmish game. Players purchase a squad from typically 500 points, from which you purchase troops and their various weapons.

The ranges in centimetres betray the continental origin of these rules, as an indicator SMGs have a range of 40cm and rifles and MGs 80cm. Players take turns to activate a model and the opponent can interupt that action. Take too many interruptions and you won't have enough models to activate.

This is a pretty quick game to play, you would easily get at least two games in a club evening, but I would want to find an alternative to the many counters that would litter the table. Rich Jones does a fuller review here.

What is it with newly painted figures ....

2012-01-21T19:15:00.003Z

What is it with newly painted figures, pop them in their first game and they lose horribly. I finished the Ortega family crew and took them down to Total Wargamer for a game of Malifaux. We had a Guild face off, not the best match up for me with all the armoured opposition in the shape of a peacekeeper, a guardian and a hunter being controlled by Hoffman.

We also got to play on the Terraclips board, I'm still not really a fan and I am looking for my own solution for an urban board.

Meanwhile in the shop they were playing a 40k apocalypse game, with something like 25,000 points on the table. They seemed to enjoy themselves but it was really everything I don't like, wall to wall vehicles, everything cramped up together, completely unrealistic.

Today I have also used the Army Painter coloured primers for the first time, I have used the black and white sprays before, but the coloured spray just didn't go on as well - don't think I will buy another.

Mission: Vraks Prime

2012-01-16T18:39:00.004Z

The following game was played in the 40K 'universe' using Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley Games in order to catch the flavour of the 40K fiction.

A lander leaves the Renegade Marine Battle Barge 'Seraph' spiralling down to the surface of Vraks Prime following the faint signal from a marines power armour. Being few in number it is necessary to recover the valuable gene seed from the Progenoid Gland and return it to harvest the valuable genetic material.

The faint signal was followed to the outskirts of a small conurbation, many of the buildings had been damaged by previous orbital bombardment providing much cover for the adherents of the false emperor.

Splitting the squad in to fire teams they advanced rapidly at first, then cautiously as they got in to the rubble strewn streets, luckily sensors build in to the armour helped to locate the enemy, who opened fire first.

Despite attempting to manoeuvre around the flanks of the marines, the guardsmen found their lasguns too weak for the task. Only once, when they managed to combine the fire power from two squads, were they able to drive marines to the ground, only to see them rise and return fire. The retrieval of the Progenoid Gland was announced by a booby trap going off, that too was ineffectual.

A magnetic fog came down which closed down long range fire and permitted the marines to leave with their prize at a cost of 2 lightly wounded and one seriously wounded. The guardsmen lost many dead and seriously wounded.

Painting Progess and a game later ....

2012-01-15T15:55:00.004Z

Well I got some time to get some hobby done this weekend, moved forward on my ACW cavalry and mounted officer. I have also assembled my plastic Shermans and cleaned up my Skytrex order.

Later on I am playing Tomorrow's War with my 40k Chaos Marines, I'll pop some photos up tomorrow, the scenario can be found here on Steve's blog.

I have a game of Malifaux in the pipline for next weekend, need to paint those Witchling Stalkers so I can play Guild.

The Deeping Wall fell ......

2012-01-14T18:47:00.002Z

We got the LOTR figures out today for a game over at Total Wargamer, a Deeping Wall refight with what figures we had available.

Constrained as we were by time we didn't see the Rohirimm arrive though Good managed to hold off for many turns until the ladders went up and wall was blown up. In truth we had to rely on volley archery to reduce the numbers of the advancing Uruks, which we were never going to achieve.

Was good to get the figures out again. Still plenty to paint in the box.

Abaddon's Black Legion

2012-01-09T21:17:00.006Z

I remember buying the first edition of 40K from the Birmingham branch of GW, then in the Palisades shopping centre, it's moved four times since. In those heady days we were encouraged to make our chapters and design our own vehicles from plastic bottles found around the house. And there was squats!

To put things in to perspective, the first plastic space marine box set, which contained 30 figures, was only £9.99 whilst for the same price you could have three rhino kits in one box.

Since then 40K has moved in two directions at once. The game which seems to appeal to the younger side of GW's target demographic, whilst it's fiction creates a rich background. I am not a fan of the current ruleset, but the release of Tomorrow's War gives an opportunity to play the game.

All these figures were bought second hand on eBay, repainted quickly in the Black Legion scheme, basically black with silver and gold trim.

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour

Terminator Squad

Marine Squad #1

Marine Squad #2

Marine Squad #3

Havocs

More Havocs

Possessed

This is around 1500 points in the current rule set, though pretty sure not an effective army list as it contains no vehicles, I am still keeping an eye on ebay for these. After the weekend I will post up my thoughts on using Tomorrow's War for 40K.

Xmas painting part 3

2012-01-02T19:16:00.003Z

Going to be time to go back to work soon, managed some more painting today;

Here is the completed claim markers for Malifaux, a nice quick and simple job.

Next up is a collection of Chaos Space Marines, all of these models except the character in Terminator armour where second hand from eBay and I have over-painted them. I remember 40K coming out way back when, I only ever played 1st Edition (Rogue Trader) but managed to paint Blood Angels some years ago.

I have read many of the novels and seen the passable movie, alas the game does not represent Marines well. Being superhuman in the books, in the game they are only marginally better than the other races - but Space Marines sell so they need them to be needed in quantity.

Later this month at our club we are going to attempt 40K using the Tomorrows War rules, if it doesn't work out - look out for them on eBay soonish.

So the force comprises;

Leader in Terminator Armour
5 Terminators
3 Squads of Chaos Marines (8, 10 & 10)
5 Havocs
7 Possessed

Realistically I could do we a few more rank and file, no more than half a dozen or so but I'm not too sure I want to chuck more cash at eBay for a game I might not play more than once. We'll see, there might be a bargain about.

New Year, New Project!

2012-01-01T16:20:00.005Z

Well it's 2012 and that means a new project to start, I have plans to get the first part of this project complete by Easter, this does load most of the effort in to the last 4 weeks so we shall see how we get on.

I am building a force of late WW2 Americans, in 15mm to use with IABSM 3. The rather vague plan has me building some Shermans first from the PSC kits, then the rest of the kits will arrive courtesy of the Skytrex 20% off sale. At the WMMS show in March I hope to pick up the infantry.

I am still a little up in the air regarding basing, having no suitable figures in the house I made do with some Peter Pig Mahdists, my options are two figures on 20mm square, two figures on 25mm square or (like Stu) three figures on the small Flames of War style base. Here's a photo to show what I mean;

I am leaning to a combination of options two and three. Making up a section with two three man bases and two, two man bases. Bases will be thin MDF from the excellent warbases.co.uk.

I was quite pleased with the way the first Sherman went together, I took it slowly, cleaning up the parts as I cut them from the sprue and used them. Used a little 'Mr Surfacer' on the turrets and some release pin marks on the fenders, this is a nice product that comes in a variety of grades of thickness, mine is quite fine (500) compared to something like 'Liquid Green Stuff' but has a further two grades even finer (1000 and 1200).

The tracks are not glued on yet, I will paint them separately and pop them on afterwards, I am also thinking of up armouring some of these to make them look a bit different, perhaps with logs down the sides, still thinking of how to do that for now.

Finally I threw together a couple of Claim markers for Malifaux, just a length of bamboo skewer, plastic card, 30mm MDF circles and some rocky scatter. Will do some more on these tomorrow.

Well that's not too bad a start for 2012.

Help Rescue The Prince!

2011-12-28T09:53:00.001Z

Here's the poster I put together yesterday for our club.

Xmas painting part 2

2011-12-27T18:03:00.003Z

These are nearly done, just want to touch up the flesh tomorrow. Will pop some tufts on once varnished.

I also took the opportunity whilst some paint was drying to knock up a poster for our wargames club and finish off some counters for Malifaux.

These represent Book and Evidence tokens which are used in scenarios in Malifaux, just some circles cut from textured plastic card and the parts on top are from the GW Flagellants boxed set, bought from a 'bits' dealer.

Xmas painting so far - Xmas Eve

2011-12-24T13:24:00.001Z

Malifaux guild crews so far.

Merry Xmas!

2011-12-24T10:49:00.003Z

It's Christmas Eve, I am on a nice break from from work and I hope to get some gaming and painting in as I mentioned last time.

We had our trial game of IABSM, all went well and we are looking forward to trying armour and artillery in the new year, I called in to Total Wargamer and bought a box of the Plastic Soldier Company Shermans, I bought the 76mm Box but I think the sprues are identical.

Skytrex have also announced a sale of the holiday so I shall pop over there and get some Anti-Guns guns, M10 Tank Destroyers and Jeeps. I should really get some prime movers for the guns but I am going to wait for the plastic half tracks until then I shall use the Jeeps even if that aren't quite right.

Merry Xmas all.

Plans for 2012

2011-12-16T17:08:00.009Z

With Xmas and the New Year rapidly approaching, I have been giving thoughts to next years projects, including finishing off this years painting.

Over the Xmas break I shall be painting up the Guild figures I have for Malifaux and finishing the 'Garden of Morr', this should give me more options for Malifaux and some usable terrain. I really want to make a portable board for this and Saga, I have some ideas in that direction.

Unusually I had issues with both these box sets, the Sonnia box had two matching Witchlings, which doesn't bother me but the Perdita box had two Santiagos and no Nino, an email to Wryd got me a replacement model without any issues.

With Feb's all day game having an ACW theme, I have some mounted and dismounted figures to paint along with some mounted generals. Just need to track down a scenario. I want to find something that will suit four to six players within the restrictions of the figures we have.

This weekend, weather permitting will see us trying out 'I Ain't Been Shot Mum', if all goes well, and I think I might then I shall be collecting a US force. Beginning with the armour, Jan/Feb will be anti-gun guns and tows, March I will hopefully pick the Infantry up at WMMS.

I have probably spend too much time deliberating over the choice of miniatures, my choice came down to Peter Pig or Skytrex, although there is more poses in the Skytrex range the Peter Pig figures are going to be much easier to paint, although there are bargains to be had in the Skytrex range. Armour has been easier where possible I shall be using the plastic kits from The Plastic Soldier Company, five tanks for £16.50 or less online is a bargain.

Will post our thoughts after tomorrows run through of the rules.

More Saga

2011-12-08T20:02:00.000Z

Played Saga again at the weekend, introducing another new player and gave the Vikings their first outing.

As always, I spend the afternoon watching telly when I should be reading the rulebook, so a quick bit of revision was needed during play, again a fun game with the advantage shifting back and forth. In the end both warlords were slain leaving only two warriors on each side. On realising they were the only survivors they decided discretion was the best part of valour and each retired.

Next time should be the first outing for IABSM3, I have no miniatures for this game, next year perhaps WMMS in March should see me buying some US infantry. Meanwhile in the Lard Xmas special, additional rules for playing in 6mm are being published.

We have also decided on doing a big ACW game at our next all day game in February, I am currently looking through scenarios for something suitable.

Blooming Eck it will be crimbo before we know it!

2011-12-02T18:30:00.000Z

I have managed to be a bit lax with both my painting and posting lately, I blame Winter .... and work. So gaming wise the fantasy campaign came to a close with a Orc and Goblin win and I still didn't bring the High Elves to the table.

On the painting table I am still working on my small band of Vikings, as they are seeing the table on Sunday I shall have to pull my finger my out.

Sundays gaming last week so a couple of us play a new WW2 ruleset, not sure it hit all the right buttons for me, so I shall continue looking. At least I beat Steve as revenge for the Firestorm game. The lights in the village hall aren't too good with the phone camera but you can see Steve's great foamcore houses.

On the next table our forthcoming participation was being trialled, based on the "Death of the Prince Imperial" incident from the Anglo-Zulu wars, players try to protect the heir to the throne of Napoleon. This game is being staged at Minicon 2012 in January, a new nearby miniatures event.

Last weekend also found me in Birmingham, in the middle of the German market, which was hell, luckily respite was found in the shape of the Ian Allen bookshop where I bought the new version of "I Aint Been Shot Mum" from Toofatlardies. Looks like fun, next year might find me quickly painting up some Brits or US after WMMS in March.

Right off to sort out these Vikings.

Z-Cars

2011-11-07T21:31:00.001Z

"Right you lot, I want you outside in 10 minutes in full public order gear", "Sarge, can we arrest zombies?". "We are not arresting anyone Constable, the undead are out of our remit, we are to contain a perimeter which we will collapse once the helicopter arrives, its all standard drill."

In an overdue Halloween game, we found ourselves having to rescue some missing scientists, lost in the town. Chris and I were "the thin blue line", Mark played the hazmat rescue team, whilst Steve and Dean played the comedy element as Bikers and Gangsters respectively.

Below can be seen the table, the police station is in the top right hand corner of the table.

The police muster outside, with shields and batons ready.

Moving out to expand the perimeter.

To the bikers and gangsters, finding the scientists could get them a space on the last helicopter out of town.

Watching any of the zombie films or the walking dead should teach us one thing, zombies are attracting to sound and guns are very loud. Steve and Dean please take notes.

Zombie Drill. Knock them down with the shield and take them out with the baton.

Zombie being attracted by the sound of gunfire as bikers and gangsters shoot at each other after the scientists are found. The hazmat team move down the table to secure the scientists before they get shot or eaten.

The few zombies that appeared were dealt with, without a single shot being fired, classic public order policing.

Bikers and Gangsters face off.

Now it gets messy, too many zombies. What's for lunch?

Biker, it seems!

The scientists are slowly moving back to the landing pad as the helicopter is heard approaching, the police collapse their perimeter.

Alas we had no model helicopter this time, I drew one and we loaded up just in time. Lets hope those scientists have some useful information.

Three way Malifaux

2011-11-03T19:42:00.000Z

Met us last weekend for a game of Malifaux, as there was three of us we decided on a three way game with a shared strategy 'distract'. I played with Nicodem and took Bete Noire.

Dave took Sonia and Luke had Ramos, Dave and Luke clashed early on whilst I tried to move my slow crew towards Dave's corner. In error I started using my crew to dig up corpse counters, which was removed when the Rules Manual came out, that didn't help me. Even though Dave lost most of his models he followed Luke in to 2nd place and I scraped 3rd. So close, one day I will win a game of Malifaux.

In the silence of space ......

2011-10-24T18:32:00.000+01:00

An offer of a game of Firestorm Armada was encouragement enough for me to get my Sorylian fleet to at least a point where I could put them on the table. I do want to do some more details and I have some decals for markings.

Enjoyed the game, of course I lost but it was the first time I played so no shame in that. Learned a bunch from the game and will look forward to playing next time.

I have also managed to put together the last few of the Napoleonic French, got them undercoated and started the basing. I will pick up on these later when I want a no brain job.

The Gripping Beast Vikings have moved on a bit too, they are coming along slower than I would have liked, I have also assembled some Guild figures for Malifaux and Bette Noire for the Resurrectionists.

A Head of Steam

2011-10-09T18:49:00.000+01:00

The next game in our Warhammer campaign saw my Warriors of Chaos come up against Empire, Jim's army is fantastically painted and is gorgeous and a pleasure to play against. I did not know what to expect never having played Empire - I had a feeling they had a bunch of anti chaos toys.

The scenario was meeting engagement, my Hellcannon missed the deployment but would still be in a good position when it comes on to the table. Jim had several units kept of table which would prove more of a problem for him.

I'm not going to go in to a blow by blow account, I made a couple of mistakes, I should have either ignored the steam tank or not charged both units of knights against it. I could then have threatened the artillery which are the real threat in this army.

The game was close which wasn't reflected in the massacre result. My undoing was 'Van Horstman's Speculum' losing me a key melee phase. Well I can still take pleasure in destroying a Steam Tank and watching both Empire wizards dimensionally cascading.

Next weekend I am playing Firestorm Armada so I have tug the sorylian fleet out to finish them off this week then back to the vikings.

What a Saga!

2011-10-04T21:28:00.000+01:00

Seems like ages that I have posted, played some games but not done as much painting as I would have liked.
Last week I played another game in our Fantasy campaign, once again facing Ade and his Goblins - I took an elite force heavy on Warriors but I was wrong footed right from the start as I was facing very mobile opponents with plenty of Magic. Live and learn, it certainly gave me more thought to getting chariots and my marauder horse painted up.

Also as always we had a spectator.

At the club we finally got to bring Saga to the table. Normans vs Vikings, just a four point game to start, working through the mechanisms to get our heads round the rules. An enjoyable game, with fatigue and the battle boards giving the expected subtly and flavour.

This game is going to bring some fun, more Viking era armies are promised as well as El-Cid, Arthurian and a free battle board that will be included in a future Wargames Illustrated.

Looking forward to finishing my own Vikings and getting some more games in.

Saga!

2011-09-14T22:40:00.003+01:00

I picked my copy of Saga last week, kept it to myself as the release date isn't until Monday but as the pre-orders are being shipped I thought I would share my thoughts so far.

As you can see I have the Norman and Viking dice sets, the rules are printed on thick glossy paper whilst the covers and battle boards are on thicker card stock. After a summer of big hardbacked rule sets these come as a centre stapled book which will certainly last longer than the 'perfect bound' style which seem to shed pages.

The book contains many photos and diagrams to aid with understanding the rules as well as adding period colour, the page corners have shield designs with the numbers in from the LBMS transfer range.

On my first skim through I picked up odd details here and there, at first glance it did look simplistic but then when I actually started to read the rules I picked up on the fatigue system and the battle boards. If any units take more than one action in a turn they gain fatigue and what is interesting is that your opponent can spend these fatigue points to slow down your movement or give themselves an advantage in melee, for example.

Each turn you throw your Saga dice, the number in part determined by the size of your warband. The dice are then spent to activate your units or special Saga abilities. The special abilities are paid for with your dice, but you can keep them for use in a future turn, hanging over your opponent.

I shall be reading through these a number of times before I play them in a couple of weeks time, I have Vikings to paint and my Normans are ready and waiting, then I shall share some thoughts on game play. If I have one criticism it is the price which apparently is down to the battle boards but ultimately if this ends up as a regularly played game then I will have value for my money.

Colours 2011

2011-09-11T20:11:00.000+01:00

This weekend was Colours 2011 at the Newbury Racecourse. I popped down for a few hours today with nothing significant on my shopping list. I only had my phone with me so just took a couple of snaps.

First a great big VBCW (1938 Battle of Ambridge) game in 28mm which included a WW1 era AV tank, Somua tanks aswell as aircraft and boats, game was presented by the 'Edward VII Cocktail bar' forum.

Crooked Dice put on some demos of the 7TV game, the game looks great, though it looks a little terrain heavy, might be fun. There figures are excellent including their new Time Slip Police which sold out over the weekend.

With our groups interest in the Anglo Zulu War I could not help but be drawn to the massive Isandlwana, this was a massive game but I;m not sure they were playing, looked more like a static display which was a shame.

So now on to the loot.

A few more penny base trays and 50mm circles from Warbases
ACW flags - Bodys Banners
More regiment bases for my Warriors of Chaos army
Tufts and Slotta bases
Another wagon and a well from Dreamholme Scenics

Other than the latest WSS magazine this was what I game for, no new metal just scenic bits and some bits and pieces. Then I got to the Simple Miniatures stand, Malifaux blisters - buy three get one free, who is going to refuse that deal. Problem was I couldn't find four.

Their other deal was buy two box sets and get a free book. I blame Dave and the others, I decided to get the Sonnia and Ortegas box sets and got the Rising Powers book for free. Bargain! I also bought Night Terrors which should be excellent for seizing objectives and the like.

This week I should be mostly finishing off my Brits for the big game next week, I shall be taking my tripod and hopefully taking lots of photos.

Battle of Cook's Hill

2011-09-05T22:49:00.000+01:00

The correspondent of the Chicago Times, writing from the Corps headquarters says "Yesterday saw men of I company of the 76th New York, engage and drive off Confederate forces. The Courtland Regiment had been pursuing the rebels since their last foraging expedition.

Captain Cook had split his forces between the two corn fields using them for cover, whilst sending a small patrol through the wooded area towards the hill and the turnpike, whilst the small cavalry moved around the right flank to get to the turnpike junction.

Lt Cochrane and Sgt Clark were the first to encounter the enemy coming under musketry before they were able gain the cover off the cornfield. Sgt Clark sustained the first of his several light wounds of that day.

Captain Cook and Lt Blodgett found their cornfield harder going, whilst Sgt Burnham worked around the right flank to get to the junction of the turnpike.

Whilst Cochrane and Clark came under continued fire from the wooded hill infront of them, the small central patrol got to the dead area infront of the main hill. Cook believed that he would find his enemny in the sunken road behind this hill but before he was able to discover this Rebels poured through the fences cresting the hill.

Finding themselves caught between two Federal forces the rebels split themselves in two, intending to drive off Cochrane then to turn and defeat Cook. Cook began to manuever his forces in to a firing line and on the left flank, rebel cavalry appeared.

Much has been made of the rebels cavalry, raiding along the front line, firing pistols and shotguns and riding off. This time they seemed determined to attack in the old European style with the sabre. They were repulsed with casualties before they were able to make contact.

Opposite Cook the rebels fired first, Cook was wounded but his men pulled him to safety and in his memory fired a tremendous volley which tore through their target, which wavered and then retreated. Burnham with his cavalry lept the fences and quickly dismounted to form a skirmish line.

Cochrane having beat off cavalry now came under fire from the rebel infantry, but concious of the formed infantry in their flank they had no choice but to concede the field to the Federal forces.

Federal casualties including Captain Cook being seriously wounded and Sgt Clark suffering numerous light wounds were five further lightly wounded, three seriously wounded and regrettably four dead.

To commemorate the bravery of Captain Cook it was decided to rename the hill they had just fought over as Cook's Hill."

With the return of wounded models and reinforcements the 76th will be up to 73 rank and file models. Cook will not be present at the next engagement due to his recuperation from his wounds ( I need to roll a six after that game for his return), Clark was patched up and will return in the next game.

Getting set for Saga

2011-08-29T21:15:00.000+01:00

Saga will soon be released and seeing that the next issue of Wargames Illustrated has a Saga feature led me to give my Dark Age collection a quick once over. As part of the various offers Gripping Beast have on their website, they show sample armies for the four armies featured. So looking at these armies, here's what I will have for the Normans.

This is a basic 4 point army, with two units of four milites, eight crossbowmen, twelve archers and the leader.

Swapping the mounted milites for their foot versions, would look like this.

As an alternative, unarmoured spearmen could be added.

I was told mounted troops cost no more than their dismounted versions but come with their own obvious disadvantages - they run away faster!

I have been thinking off getting a second army, checking the lead mountain I have found enough figures to do a Viking force, just need to clear the current projects, get some shields and a suitable Warlord figure.

Today's painting

2011-08-26T22:09:00.000+01:00

Typically I haven't managed to get all the painting done I wanted to this week, but here are some bits that have been kicking around for a bit wanting some attention.

Mordhiem dogs, lost in the garage for a couple of years. Got them mounted on some round bases for use in Malifaux and zombies games.

Heresy Ghouls also based to match recent painting, these might get used as mindless zombies.

Photos taken quickly on camera phone which is why the photos are a bit off, must schedule a proper photo day and get the tripod and light box out.

The 76th march on

2011-08-26T13:45:00.000+01:00

Following a break in the campaign season, the 76th New York will once again take to the table. After their first meeting with the rebels they lost four dead, suffered two badly wounded and a further two lightly wounded.

In their last engagement, they only brought 74 models to the table, having to wait until after the game for the return of the two badly wounded models. Unfortunately they suffered another four dead and 2 badly wounded.

Next weekend I will have only seventy models to bring to the table, but they are now 'tested', are no longer poor shots and after the game I get eight reinforcements plus the return of two wounded.

Seamus - The Red Chapel Gang

2011-08-23T22:20:00.000+01:00

This weeks focus has been on moving some projects forward, today I have painted another crew box for Malifaux, this time 'The Red Chapel Gang'.

Again I had fun painting these, used some colours that don't see the light of day to often like tentacle pink and ice blue. I have also finished some more markers which could be corpse counters or body parts as needed. Just finishing some Heresy ghouls which I shall use as zombies, just some finishing off and basing to go on those.

Later this week I would to finish the Zulu War British, my Dystopian Wars Prussian fleet and perhaps even my Sorylian fleet for Firestorm Armada.

Size Matters!

2011-08-22T21:45:00.001+01:00

Called in to Total Wargamer this afternoon, I had missed the Mantic visit on Saturday but they had left their 3-up copy of Dwarf King's Hold. The 3-ups are resin copies of the original masters, fit in the hand well with a nice weight and are a great advert for the production miniatures.

The box contains the tiles that make up the dungeon, a couple of sprues of skeletons and half a dozen dwarfs. The rules contain six scenarios which should give some extended playability. So is this value for money? The retail price is £35 but a quick look on the web finds it for less than £30 with the miniatures and scenarios should give at least half dozen gaming sessions before you have to repeat things, simple enough for the non gamer in the family, so I say yes.

The game was fun, I won the game I played and as Ade has bought a copy will look forward to playing the scenarios.

Tonights the Knight!

2011-08-19T19:51:00.000+01:00

Last weeks game of Warhammer didn't go as planned. A WoC matchup left me badly beaten, my own fault, short on time I reused an old list without giving it too much thought and I paid the price. This week due to the other campaign matchups I found my self facing the same opponent.

This week I decided to go quality over quantity, Knights had caused much of my pain last time so I took a couple of units, some warriors, a marauder horde and a hellcannon along with my characters. Effectively four units and a cannon - a pretty small army.

Steve's army was broadly similar, less magic and an extra unit of Chaos Warriors, the scenario was battle lines, and I got to go second.

We had both set up on the twelve inch line, the gap between the armies was only twenty four inches. Steve began to move things up, carefully measuring. A little magic sparked between the armies causing first blood to Steve. On my turn my magic advantage began to worry Steve along with the Hellcannon dropping templates on to his Warriors.

After a little brinkmanship, Steve decided that he needed to act and he released his Knights of Khorne, unfortunately they failed their charge, which in turn let them to being charged by my Knights and Exalted Champion. On the other flank my Knights of Nurgle charged contacted the Knights opposing them.

Winning strongly on my left, Steve's Knights break and I follow but not manage to catch them in the pursuit. On the other flank my magic banner "Festering Shroud" proves to be pointless as my opponents were also Knights of Nurgle. I roll my attacks, cause no wounds, Steve rolls and amazingly although outnumbering me, causes no hits too. I win the combat because I charged, Steve fails the break test, I pursue and run him down.

Steve's next turn saw him charging his foot units forward to hit my marauders and warriors, outnumbered the marauders complete with my general are broken and run down, the warriors are more resilient and defeat their chargers.Steve's marauders turn to face off against the hellcannon, the remaining warriors charge my warriors breaking them but do not pursue.

My Knights return, charging in taking casualties but holding up the warriors long enough for the other Knights to get a rear charge. The Hellcannon holds the Marauders up eventually beating and destroying them. Steve's remaining wizard destroys the remnants of my warriors before my Exalted Hero sqaushes him. His general flees but I am unable to catch him.

The game ends at that point, working out the points, a solid victory to me.

Weekend of Gaming Part 2

2011-08-08T20:08:00.000+01:00

Played a game using the FAD system, which got my much underused Neo Soviets on the table, A battle report can be found on the club blog here.

I have a game of Warhammer scheduled for tomorrow, while the rest of the week should see me filling some joints on some Heresy Ghouls, undercoating them with the Seamus crew for Malifaux and carrying on with my last few Brits for the club all day game next month.

Weekend of Gaming

2011-08-07T15:51:00.000+01:00

This weekend we had a bunch of us get together at Total Wargamer for a day of Malifaux. I got two games in, the first against Guild and the second against Neverborn, these were the first games using the Nicodem crew and only my second time playing Malifaux and yes I lost both.

There are still plenty of things for me to remember, not only the rules but the abilities of the characters, I am sure I will get there soon, I will take kudos in that my crew was painted.

I did pick up the Seamus crew, all the figures are useful with my existing models. I have got them cleaned up and ready for undercoating.

I am using a pack of Army Painter resin body parts to add to my corpse counter collection, these could also be used as 'body parts' counters if needed. Will have to paint some gory bases this week.

I have another game tonight, this time 28mm Sci-fi using my Neo-Sovs and a game of Warhammer scheduled for Tuesday night. It's a hard life .........

Too many irons in the fire!

2011-07-31T22:59:00.000+01:00

I had to tidy my office in the week and whilst tidying my hobby stuff I realised that I had too many things on the go at the moment. Now I am not talking about stuff in the lead mountain but stuff that was out and on the painting table.

So my current projects seem to be;

28mm ACW
28mm Napoleonics
Warriors of Chaos for Warhammer
British Infantry for Anglo-Zulu War
Dystopian Wars Prussians
Firestorm Armada Sorylians
Malifaux Resurrectionists

Of those the last three are pretty small so this weekend I decided to spend some time and knock one off the list, with the prospect of playing Malifaux next weekend, they got my attention.

So far I have the Nicodem box set and the Mindless Zombies blister, bases are Fenris Games' city ruin base toppers.The thing I did notice when I prepared these minis is that Wyrd don't have in house sculpters but use a selection of freelancers, this I imagine might effect the consistent appearance of the figures.

The best example of this is the 'Punk Zombies'. I found the castings rather flat and thin, I am not sure if this was how they were cast or, as I have seen before, an over zealous mould maker who manages to squash the masters. Once assembled and painted, it is not so apparent.

Mindless Zombies.

Next up 'Punk Zombies'.

Mortimer and Nicodem.

The whole 'crew' so far.

Next up I shall finish the 16 British Infantry for the Zulu Wars, these will play their part in the all day game in September.

Getting Sharper

2011-07-24T21:07:00.000+01:00

Well last weekends game galvanised my modelling and painting, the need for more painted Napoleonic miniatures was obvious and as I already had some in the lead and plastic mountain I rolled up my sleeves and grabbed my swan-morton.

I bought a box of the Perry dragoons when the came out and assembled the foot figures and added a couple of easy conversions to make an officer and a trumpet player on foot. I have now assembled the cavalry as well as they are awaiting undercoat.

Now the figures have the post 1812 uniform with the shorter coat tails, but I am not that bothered and I certainly won't lose any sleep over it, particularly as no one make foot dragoons with the quality and variety I want.

I have been making a box of Victrix French, sixty figures for £20 or less is a bargain, but boy do they take ages to build, I am only three quarters through the box but the variety is good.

Wargames Foundry recent 20% off sale brought their prices down to near reasonable levels, but it did mean I got some more dismounted ACW cavalry as well as some Napoleonic Sailors and Marines. Brigade Games has a small package on route to me with some other goodies.

The icing on the game was finding a Sharp book I hadn't read on the bookshelf and another three I didn't own.

A sunny afternoon in Spain, a rainy weekend in the UK.

2011-07-18T20:46:00.000+01:00

A number of cancellations this weekend had let us without a game for Sunday evening. A lack of Napoleonic miniatures had kept us from the original Sharp Practice although we play plenty of TSS, the ACW variant and our own Zulu variant.

We found we could scrape together about eight groups plus big men so thought we would give it a go, if nothing else it might motivate us to paint so more!

Dodgy photos are courtesy of my phone, hence the poor colour balance. Figures are Victrix, Foundry and Front Rank. Buildings are from Snapdragon, Italeri and Grand Manner. Rules are of course Sharp Practice by Too Fat Lardies.

The table saw the church at one end of the table with a few more buildings on the flank, a sail-less windmill dominated a small ridge. A small wooded hill dominated the other flank.

All the forces started the game on blinds, the French moved a blind down each of the tracks whilst their third blind took a position behind the ridge. The British advanced two groups centrally in to the centre of the village, the third group moved through the wooded hill.

The second turn brought the French off their blinds, revealing the left most blind as empty. They then used their actions to spot the British. The blinds in the village centre revealed three groups of foot whilst the group on the right were revealed as riflemen.

French skirmishers supporting a group of French line.

The feared British riflemen took aim on their prey, their officer called forward the chosen man to thin out the French officers, alas he has used his supply of finely milled powder to provide them with yesterdays rabbit supper.

The British line form themselves in to a formidable three group formation, the French groups form in to a formation behind the ridge.

In order to cover their flank the British commander orders the end group to wheel against the French to protect the flank of the others, after losing a man insensible to drink, they open fire on the French to their front. The longer range of the riflemen is having a telling effect on the flank doing useful work against their opposite numbers.

The French on the ridge decided to advance and wheel against the lone British group getting a partial enfilade, the volley tore through them and forced them backwards. The British commander advanced and fired a volley in to the French formation causing casualties and inflicting shock points.

The riflemen continued their fire on the lone French group causing sufficient shock to force it to withdraw. Timing know was everything, the opposing formations where now both unloaded, the senior British big man card came up first and they had "Now Maitland, now's your time!"

Ordering a charge and using a 'Grasp the Nettle' card to add fervour the British charged with the cold steel. In close rounds of fisticuffs the French groups were pushed back and routed.

A great game with a reasonable believable result which felt right to us. In retrospect we should have either added another group of French or improved their quality to Good. More games to come once the paint is dry on more miniatures.

Henshaw saves the day!

2011-07-03T22:53:00.002+01:00

Just back from an excellent club night, a 28mm Anglo-Zulu war game using Sharp Practice, thankfully a victory for the British. A battle report will appears on the club blog.

June painting update

2011-06-27T22:44:00.000+01:00

June has seen me mostly waiting for my Malifaux stuff to arrive, some of it is out of stock so meanwhile 'the devil makes work for idle hands'.

I painted up some test Tyranids a while ago, I wanted a generic bug army for Sci-Fi gaming, but meanwhile courtesy of some eBay bargains I have painted up a bunch of Chaos Marines, once I get some time I will have a photo shoot for these.

This weekend has been a bit of a pick and mix, I had popped in to Gripping Beast after work to see how their Saga rules were coming on, I am really looking forward to this one and that caused me to have a delve in to the lead mountain and dig out all my dark age civilians, so those have been cleaned up and undercoated.

I have also blocked a basic flesh tone on to the Wargames Factory 'Numidians' and will get some more done on these along with the resin hay car this week. But just to prove how fickle I am, whilst I was listening to pocasts over the weekend someone mentioned Firestorm Armada, so I pulled the box from the shelf, cleaned up and assembled the ships and slapped a undercoat on them.

The ships are going to be green, inspired by the shot of the carrier in the rulebook, I have sprayed some Tamiya NATO green on with the airbrush, but they will need a couple of coats. I ran out of prepared paint before I got to the battleship, so that will wait till next time.

I also have been able to get a GW corpse cart kit on eBay, the lack of instructions hasn't really proved to be to much of a problem, but I haven't decided whether this will be a chariot or a warshrine. The 'rider' is likely to end up a chaos mage.

Putting the cart before the horse

2011-06-21T20:42:00.000+01:00

Is this one of the most useful and cheapest scenic items I have bought in a long time? Okay it's a resin hay cart bought on eBay from drwillettsworkshop I got mine for £2.00 which is a bargain for something I can use in periods from Ancients, Dark Ages, ECW, ACW, Napoleonics and World War Two.

This is as delivered shot, the casting is very clean and I can't see that I need to do any cleaning up at all although I did give it a rinse in warm soapy water just in case there was mould release agent used. I will get some paint on this very soon.

Is it summer yet?

2011-06-12T18:57:00.000+01:00

Well here we are in the UK having a wet weekend, isn't it supposed to be summer? Well at least I am able to have a 'hobby day' today without feeling I should be out doing something or mowing the lawn.

First up I have finally finished making the Wargames Factory Numidians, a plastic set which is great for making all manner of ancient light infantry. I have deliberately not used any helmeted head to make them less like formal troops.

I also made eight without any weapons at all, scraped off their cross belt from across the chest in order to make unarmoured figures, hopefully the open hands won't be too obvious once painted.

Finally after last weekends introduction to Malifaux, here are my first first three Wyrd figures. As Malifaux is very much a skirmish game with a low figure count, I wanted the figures and the bases to be as good as I could make them. The starter sets contain on average 5 figures, which is enough for a game.

I had some resin bases from Fenris Games tucked away, I fancied using some of these but was wary as I would have to cut the slot tabs of the figures and drill out the legs for pins. Not something I was looking forward to doing. In the end I decided to trim the tab to make the pin itself, the bases are very easy to work with, ten seconds with the pinvice and another few seconds with a needle file and the job was done. A tab of superglue and then glued the resin to the plastic base.

This is something the figures might look like once they are painted. I have some other figures I can use with these from Heresy miniatures, those are on the work table being pinned and glued before undercoating.

Juggernauts rule our streets!

2011-06-07T21:57:00.000+01:00

I have been wanting to get a hero mounted on a juggernaut for a while but have avoided the metal kit from GW as I know too well from experience that they can be a pain to assemble if the metal parts have warped. A while ago I thought of using the bloodletter box combined with the plastic knights, buying those boxes new would come to £49! Of course I could reuse some of the parts and sell on others, luckily someone else had that idea too.

A seller on eBay had combined the kits but armed the knights with lances which is inappropriate for Warhammer fantasy. I was able to cut off one arm at the elbow and glue on a mace arm.

The second knight had his arm cut off at the joint, I was able to reposition it and cut off the blade and then attach the standard. Not sure I would use them both at the same time, and having a frenzied battle standard bearer sounds like a gamble to me.

Photo Galleries

2011-05-28T19:59:00.000+01:00

I have added some galleries, they should appear on the right. I have grouped the photos in to five galleries which will get added to as I paint or photograph new miniatures.

There will be some new photos soon as I am working on something "new".

Chaos comes to town .....

2011-05-21T20:51:00.000+01:00

I have played three games with my still growing chaos army for Warhammer Fantasy and we are starting a local campaign soon, nothing too serious just something to hang game narrative on. I am one of 2 chaos players out of 7 total.

I am still trying out things with the army, I haven't yet played with the knights, giant or my spawn. The marauder horse are still in the painting queue. I still have yet to add chariots or a warshrine to the collection. I had another 2000 point game last week against Orcs and Goblins, playing with lots of warriors and marauders, hounds, two sorcerers and a battle standard bearer.

Lining up against each other. Yes that's an Arachnarok spider on the flank.

Shortly before the picture was taken the general was sucked down with 'Cloying quagmire' causing the whole army to rely on their own leadership for the rest of the game.

Here's a unit of Goblin Archers which having failed it's animosity test charged forward.

Hounds move in to block the 'Mangler Squiq' and in turn are charged by the Squig herd which in turn kills most of the hounds. It is thing charged by two warrior units and completely destroyed. The spider charges in later, kills some of the marauders but then falls victim to 'Cloying Quagmire' and it's weight pulls in down in to the mud.

More Warhammer soon.

Heavy Metal!

2011-05-04T20:32:00.000+01:00

Not yet fired in anger in a game, this Perry Miniatures gun comes with three barrels of different calibre.

See the club blog for a battle report.

Another bank holiday weekend painting update.

2011-05-01T16:25:00.000+01:00

Well May is upon us. I finished my third box of Perry's ACW plastics and got my Warriors of Chaos army to a playable level which pretty much puts me on target. I have managed to accumulate a second hand box of cavalry and a couple of blisters of metals which I will work on here and there.

Next up is to finish my Prussian fleet for Dystopian Wars. Shouldn't take too long then the rest of the month is devoted to Bugs!

Warriors of Chaos - trainer wheels screwed on!

2011-05-01T16:13:00.000+01:00

Well, with the potential points value of my army approaching 3000 points, I was thinking it was going to be time to start hitting the books. Not playing since 6th edition I was out of date with the current mechanisms and various special rules in the army book.

Clearly Ade had other ideas, not wanting to be stuck in front of the TV on the Royal Wedding Day he challenged me to a 2000 point game on one of the tables at the Total Wargamer shop. We made it clear that we were just going to have a bit a fun so I could get my head around what things did - I went home that night and started writing a list on Army Builder and tried to skim rules I was unsure of. Luckily for me, my resin movement trays turned up from Terrain Warehouse that day.

Well I took two units of chaos warriors, 2 hordes of marauders, the hellcannon and some heroes. I was unsure of the hellcannon would do or if the marauders would stand in combat. Magic was another quandary not knowing which Lore I went for Fire to see how things went. I still have to see how Cavalry and giants will fit in to the army but that will be for another day.

So I've learned that magic makes a big difference, Black Orcs hurt, Marauders are pretty good and I will always take hounds as meatshields if I am facing goblin fanatics. I still have the marauder horse to paint, like some ogres and trolls, and not forgetting I will need to scratch build a warshine.

76th New York Volunteers in 'Terrible Sharp Sword'

2011-04-24T18:42:00.000+01:00

For me, one of the best features in the Toofatlardies ACW supplement for Sharp Practice is the narrative campaign. Players generate a company sized force and it's officers, progressing through battles until eventually the company is disbanded due to it's losses.

I decided I would once more paint a Union force. I painted a Union army in the early 90s using Dixon Miniatures staging Gettysburg demo games, we won two best of shows so must have been doing something right. This time Perry plastics and a few metal blisters provide the miniatures.Visiting the Colours show last year, I flicked through the flags available and picked a sheet with the 76th on.

The 76th Regiment began recruiting in September 1861, finally mustering in January 1862. Companies A through G where formed from men recruited initially as The Courtland Regiment, whilst companies H, I and K where formed from the Cherry Valley Regiment. Neither regiment was big enough to be mustered on their own so they were consolidated to form the 76th New York Volunteers with others forming Battery M of the 3rd Artillery.

Much information on Civil War regiments is readily available on the internet.Within the regiment I chose I Company , I have named my Big Men after the officers and NCOs present during the muster. Their biographical details are generated from within the rules and clearly do not represent the real life individuals.

We start the campaign in 1861, rolling up my troops (60 + 4D6) I got 80 figures so 10 groups. With one 'Big Man' for every two groups gives me five. My troop quality rolled as Rabble and I found my unit armed with Rifled Muskets, predictably my musketry rolled as Poor but they start as Aggressive.

Captain John Elihu Cook.

Level 2. Office Boy, Hist 6. Phy Av. Handsome. Popular. Accomplished swordsman, Honourable. Man of Letters.

John Cook was born in Dublin and was a schoolmaster teaching Latin and Maths. The after effects of the potato famine caused unrest in the city and after briefly getting involved in republican politics he decided to emigrate to the Americas. Once again teaching, this time in Courtland County, Cook is determined that the principles of his adopted country should be upheld, he is charismatic and popular bringing others with him when he signed up. He is an accomplished swordsman, enjoying fencing in his youth but has only had occasional experience on horseback.

Lieutenant Hiram A Blodget.

Level 2. Son of Soil. Hist 4. Sickly. Plain. Disliked. Slasher. Honourable. Athlete.

Blodgett saw to earn the respect of his father, who fought at the Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican-American war so followed the call to arms. He is somewhat plain in appearance and has a tendency to speak his mind which tends cause people to dislike him although he does have the best of intentions, whilst being athletic he does suffer with occasional bouts of the flux. He has little success either on horseback or with a sword in his hand, he prefers to fight with his Colt Army revolver in the battle line shouting encouragement to the men.

Second Lieutenant Edward B Cochrane.

Level 2. Office Boy. Hist 4. Giant. Handsome. Detested. Fair swordsman. Bounder. Man of Letters. Avarice. Lush

Cochrane taught with Cook, although Cook probably wished he stayed behind. Cochrane is a tall handsome fellow who likes nothing more than lining his pocketbook at the expense of others, he has no concept of honour and his word has little value. When sober he is an fair swordsmen which others have found to their cost, alas he does like the whisky and often has a supply hidden nearby.

First Sergeant Ubebto Burnham.

Level 2. Office Boy. Hist 2. Av Phys. Pig. Popular. Fair swordsman. Honourable. Linguist.

Burnham met Cook when he first came from Dublin and have been friends for many years, Burnham's family have roots stretching back to the revolution, with his some of his family present in Boston at the time of the terrible massacre. His talent is with languages, speaking French and German as well as some words in the native tongues. Whilst quite an ugly fellow, he is fair and honourable which makes him popular with the men in his command, as many infantry he has little experience on horseback but manages not to fall off.

Sergeant Peter Clark.

Level 2. Son of Soil. Hist 5. Giant. Plain. Av Pop. Accomplished swordsman. Honourable. Countryman +1 spot. Accomplished Rider.

Clark's family have a farm in the Cherry Valley, arriving from Germany before he was born he has been raised in the outdoors and has spent much of his life on horseback. He is a giant of a man and took well to the army and it's discipline.

So five fairly average 'Big Men', the lack of anyone higher than level 2 may cause me problems later but my first target must be to improve the musketry level otherwise I will find myself outnumbered in future games.

Bank Holiday Painting .......

2011-04-22T20:51:00.000+01:00

I had a target of finishing the main parts of my Warriors of Chaos army before the end of April. I have finished both mages and the giant today. Will varnish them tomorrow and add flock over the weekend.

Firstly is a sorcerer, this is the Games Day "Freebie", an excellent figure and shows well how much sculpting has come on since I started buying miniatures in the mid eighties.

Now one sorcerer in the army is not enough, I would probably like one of the ones on a flying disc but until then I found this figure on eBay. Kind of how people feel sorry for the sad looking mongrels at the dogs home, I felt sorry for this one. Very mid 90s sculpting style.

Lastly the plastic giant, the box comes with a lot of extras, I built this one as a chaos giant without too many bits to break off.

Another day of painting tomorrow, will concentrate on my ACW troops.

Minas Tirith debut

2011-04-19T16:48:00.001+01:00

As I have mentioned before the LOTR strategy battle game is very cheap to get to, the figures are very available at great prices on eBay. I painted up 500 points of Minas Tirith warriors, lots of armour meant a real quick paint job.

As they hadn't seen a game yet I thought it was about time, as I hadn't played for a couple of years we didn't bother with a scenario - just a straight up battle. Dane forgot his trolls! Doh! He added in some goblin models to proxy for more orcs to make up for it.

The table was quite straight forward, some trees, cork as rocky outcrops and ruins from Eslo and GW provide the cover. We played across the short edges of the table, dicing for sides.

Straight away I realise I had made errors putting my models out, the archers which should be anchoring the flank are in the middle and I failed to combine my spear and sword armed units. The sword armed warriors would get no rear support.

I move up the warriors and knights, beginning the process of moving the spear unit.

Dane moves his orcs and I continue to move the warriors up, taking the archers into the woods.

The archers begin to take advantage of their longer range to start shooting the orcs. The warriors move up, whilst the knights are a little to close to the orc archers which have been shooting at them.

Getting ready for the charge!

Off camera, I have lost the initiative and suffer the indignity of having my knights charged by orc archers robbing me of my attack bonus. Luckily the heavy armour plays it part and the orcs do no damage and find once I have the opportunity I charge in and scatter them back.

We continue to skirmish, fighting through the door way on the Osigiliath ruins.

As the warriors and knights on the left tear holes in the orcs, to the right they come around the riun to fight the warriors and steward, both sides take casualties.

The orcs are finally below half strength and start taking courage tests, those failing find themselves being chased. The archers end up finding an orc hero, surrounding him. Dane uses his might points to defeat me and kill a couple, the following turn they all charge back in and hack him down.

Great fun.

Marauders!!

2011-04-15T22:59:00.000+01:00

Lots of Chaos Marauders, a mixture of weapons to give me the classic hand weapon and shield combo, flails or great weapons. There are four command teams, three of the standards and painted plain whilst I work out how I want to paint them, all will have a similar theme. There are 86 in total, I might make a few until fillers so I can do 3 30 figure units, 2 40 figure units or 4 20s, because whilst I have about a dozen mounted, I am determined not to buy and paint any more!

Coy I marches to war.

2011-04-04T22:45:00.002+01:00

After our "Terrible Sharp Sword" game at the last club, we were determined to play again starting our narrative campaign. Here I shall present a quick battle report focussing more on the game, later in the week I shall present Coy I, 76th New York, it's officers and men.

Scenario Two in the rulebook "Marching" sees one force trying to move across the table whilst the other is patrolling the area and unaware of their opponents position. The Union troops entered the table on the road whilst the Confederates entered from the road on the right hand side as seen from the photo below.

The table seen from the other side.

The Union forces advanced down the road on blinds, we didn't use dummies, the first card represented the small cavalry force, the next the 76th and the third blind was the Zouaves bringing up the rear of the column. The forces became snarled up after some appalling dice rolls for movement.

Eventually the cavalry came off their blind and continued their advance down the road.

The Confederates moved down the road towards the junction, some of the rebels come off their blinds ready to engage the cavalry

The rebel skirmishers are spotted by the sergeant leading the cavalry.

The rebels rush forward to the fence to engage the cavalry. They then come under fire which encourages them to leave the road and take cover. Once off the road they line the trees, coming under continued fire, Sergeant Clark is lightly wounded by fire from the fowling pieces, whilst the Union cavalry return fire with the breach loading carbines driving the rebels from the road and in to the cover of the tree line.

Meanwhile, other blinds had crossed the top of the table, and revealed themselves blocking the road. The 76th hearing the musketry ahead pull of the road and on to the hill coming off their blind when spotted by the rebel skirmishers now in the tree line.

The Zouaves, still on their blind, move left off the road.

The 76th shall advance!

The cavalry were ordered back by Clark before they their accrued shock would force them back.

Fire from the 76th forced the rebels out of the tree line as the Union forces continued to advance.

The blue line continues their advance.

Once in the tree line they continue to fire on the retreating rebel forces routing one unit.

The cavalry rally behind the cover of the Zouaves, who continue to advance towards the rebels.

With time running out we decided to end the game with some volley fire from the 76th, which was returned by the rebel skirmishers lining the fences on the road. After rolling an enormous number of dice we decide that the Union forces would carry the day if we had more time, I duly claimed the two victory points.

The Union forces suffered eight casualties which in the post game checks resulted in four dead, four seriously wounded and missing the next game and finally four only lightly wounded which would be healed by the next game.

The 76th will take to the table with 72 of their original 80 figures on the next game.

Clocks go forward .......

2011-03-27T21:00:00.000+01:00

Well March is coming to an end and the clocks changed this morning, this of course gives some extra light for painting in an evening. I am aiming to get both the Warriors of Chaos army and the ACW figures finished by the end of the April. The ACW figures are based but remain in their black undercoat so I won't be tempted to use them in next weekends game!

Current focus is on the Marauders for my WoC army, these don't represent an actual unit but are the remainder of the figures. Some are armed with flails, hand weapons or great weapons. I hope to have had some good progress on these during the next week.

I have just blocked in the armour colour which will get dulled down with a black wash once the leggings etc are blocked in.

For a while now I have been looking for an alien race for 28mm Near Future type games, luckily for me Ade had a Tyranid boxed set he didn't need, which meant that I could get some cheapish bug types. I have some ideas for some games influenced by Ambush Alley.

I freely admit that I have a love/hate relationship with 40K, it was probably the first game I had proper painted forces for back in the days of Rogue Trader edition. I have read many of the novels particularly those by Dan Abnett, GW have created a fabulous history and range of characters.

Here's the sample models I painted up. We do seem to be in a 40K resurgence at the club and with Paul at Total Wargamer seemingly owning half a dozen armies, the profile is rising. I am not too sure about the rules, they do seem to be geared towards large games, I would prefer something on a more skirmish level where you can get a game with a squad box each.

Terrible Sharp Sword run through

2011-03-22T22:12:00.001Z

At recent club we put together a run through of the Terrible Sharp Sword rules for ACW. We did make some mistakes with the rules which we have ironed out for the next club.

Initially all the troops were represented on blinds, Union by cards and the Confederates in terrain. In the photo below we see the Union troops spreading out whilst some head up the road towards the bridge.

Confederate dismounted cavalry successfully spot advancing groups of Union troops and open fire from behind the cover of the tree line. They also manage to spot the advancing Zouaves forcing them off their blind.

Again the cavalry opened fire but disaster strikes as they roll more 1s than 6s causing a random event - in this case excess smoke builds up in front of the firer.

Union dismounted cavalry take advantage of their Sharps rifle to pore shots across the river towards their foe.

The union "big men" manage to combine groups and advance.

Confederate troops behind the tree line.

The Zoauves reach the bridge.

At this point we bring the game to a close, realising we all opened fire to soon, holding for the first volley is worth doing and shouldn't be frittered away firing at long range. We also made a really stupid error with the rules which is far too embarrassing to reveal, none the less we are playing again next club.

Forward the 76th!

2011-03-20T13:35:00.000Z

Tonight will see the début of my ACW forces in a game of Terrible Sharp Sword - the ACW supplement for Sharp Practice from Too Fat Lardies, we have played the rules before but with our Anglo Zulu War figures and a few amendments.

Here is the force so far, all figures are from Perry Miniatures, and the bases from Warbases. I have painted two boxes of infantry and a box of cavalry so far along with a couple of packs of dismounted cavalry and a householder. A third box of infantry, a pack of metal command and a cannon will complete this project bar a mounted officer to act as overall commander.

Here's the dismounted cavalry with the breach loading carbines and my homemade bamboo skewer fences.

TSS doesn't use flags as the game scale is quite small, I am adding standards so that in the future I could also use the figures in larger scale games like Black Powder.

A shot down the lines, all the bases hold 8 figures on penny sized bases.

Alas when I came to buy my horse holder pack, Dave Thomas was all out of the Union pack, so I bought a confederate pack instead and painted him blue, purists probably wouldn't but it didn't bother me.

My cavalry ready to charge forward.

And from the side. I have been looking forward to tonight's game for a while, should be fun and it might inspire others to paint some ACW up too.

More Warriors of Chaos

2011-03-07T14:27:00.001Z

I have finished some more Warriors of Chaos, this brings me up to 1600 points and 2 characters. I am taking a short break to finish off some ACW figures for our "Terrible Sharp Sword" debut in a couple of weeks.

First up we have a Khornate Champion of Chaos, which I might use as an Exalted Hero.

Now an older figure that I picked up painted second hand, I have given it a touch up and a rebase.

Here's a few shots of the Hellcannon with Chaos Dwarf crew, I have added it to a base to increase its chances of being transported safely without either smashing itself or everything else.

Lastly, the current Knights of Chaos, these are great figure but they are big and as you can see here, they don't rank up easily. You could get away using these are mounted heroes on demonic steeds if you put them on 50mm bases.

I also have the chaos giant half painted, a great kit with loads of extras in the box which will add another 225 points to the army before long.

Dire Wolves are for life not just for Christmas!

2011-02-27T17:51:00.001Z

I picked up some painted Dire Wolves at our last all day game, gave them a rebase and a little extra paint and stuck them in to the finished pile.

These might find use in a zombie or sci-fi game and if I can get away with it as more ~~meatshields~~ Chaos Hounds for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I have now moved on to finish a box of the enormous Knights of Chaos, these a large figures and don't quite rank up properly which I should have thought of whilst I was making them, it doesn't help that the 25mm wide bases, aren't.

Also got a big varnishing session done this afternoon which probably means I will spend much of this evening, in front of the telly flocking and tufting this lot.

That's 40 marauders, 31 warriors and 10 wolves. It might take me a few hours. Once the Knights are finished then next up are two wizards.

Warriors of Chaos finished!!

2011-02-25T21:59:00.001Z

I have finished two regiments of Chaos Warriors tonight, they will get varnished and flocked this weekend, they are currently both 15 figures strong.

Firstly, we have a unit armed with two hand weapons each, in WFB these would have three attacks per turn, four if they had frenzy.

The next unit I picked up second hand and finished them off, I may replace the standard at a later date. This unit is armed with Hand Weapon and Shield, giving them a 3+ save and a ward save,

I would love to model some standards inspired by the Thulsa Doom snake cult from Conan the Barbarian, like this image below which I found on a album cover.

Roads closed, move along please ......

2011-02-21T22:42:00.000Z

Since the last update I have finished the first half of my big pile of Marauders, these are now put aside awaiting varnishing and flock. With a game of zombies coming up I had a bunch of props to paint up to dress up the game board a little, these are from Fenris Games and are available on eBay.

Pop over to the Evesham Wargames Club for some photos from the game and time for a quick plug, pop over to the Total Wargames blog for some reviews of both the new Orc and Goblin army book for Warhammer and the Arachnarok spider by my good mate and long term gaming opponent Ade.

Tomorrow is Chaos Warrior Tuesday!!

February Rolls In

2011-02-07T22:16:00.000Z

Well February is upon us and I am continuing to chip away at my old projects. On the painting table at the moment are some 6mm ACW figures and about half my huge pile of chaos marauders.

Last night I sat in on a game of Firestorm Armada, following the rules as the game progressed. I had been sitting on the fence for ages about this game but I enjoyed sitting in on the game and many of the ships are excellent.

There is more photos on both the club's and Steve's blogs. Including Steve's excellent star map.

Above is one of Steve's Aquans, an excellent paint job and very nice models. Once I had got back home I poured over the photos on the Spartan Games website, no one has the Terran ships as yet, the basic fleet is pretty good - reminiscent of the Imperial Ships from Star Wars. The problem then is the rest of the the ships, nice models but I just didn't like them enough to buy and paint them.

I have settled on the Sorylian Collective and found a cheap deal on ebay, they are currently incoming, should be a quick and easy paint shop before seeing the table.

First project of 2011 complete!

2011-01-28T20:18:00.000Z

I am happy to say I have completed my first project of 2011, shame of wasn't one of my three priorities. We have had the odd game of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game at the club and I decided that I would paint a force up. Years ago I painted some Riders of Rohan but this time I choose Gondor, all the armour would speed up the painting!

My challenge to myself was that I wanted to build the force entirely from second hand model. Whilst the SBG is a great game it has fallen from popularity as the movies came to an end, there are always plenty of models on eBay so wait till you get the price you want - don't leap at the first Gandalf you find.

This force is one from the 'Gondor in Flames' sourcebook (apart from Gandalf). 36 foot, 12 each of bow, spear/shield and sword/shield plus 6 Mounted Knights, a Captain and a King or Steward. Cost wise this is approximately 500 points.

Here is the Captain, Steward and Gandalf.

Warriors with sword and shield

Archers

Spearmen

Knights

Gaming wise it is still a week before the next club night, I got my weekly Memoir fix and I need to focus on finishing the next project and not get drawn in to anything else just yet.

Just a slight diversion

2011-01-18T21:55:00.001Z

I had to tidy up my office recently which put me in a mood to get some paint on some miniatures. Over the xmas break I did some basing on my LOTR Gondor forces and this looked like a quick win to start the year.

The force comprises 36 infantry, 6 Knights, a Hero and a King. Like all of my LOTR collection everything is second hand and much of it sourced from eBay. Prices can be very reasonable even for metal characters, just wait until the pieces you want come up at the right price. I have been stalking Knights for months.

Hopefully the army will be finished in about another week and I can start and get some games in. I have more infantry and characters stashed away.

Gaming recently has been more Memoir 44 and on Saturday we had an all-dayer Wild West game, a report can be found soon at http://eveshamwargames.blogspot.com/.

A basic basing tutorial

2011-01-09T21:42:00.007Z

I seemed to have spend a few hours lately basing up figures from my forthcoming chaos army, whilst I was there I took a few pictures with my phone.

Basing should not be disregarded, good consistent basing ties figures together in a collection even if they are not painted by the same person. Decent basing will always improve a figure whilst a nicely painted figure will always be spoiled by poor basing.

So what do you need, firstly I use a tub of sand which is mixed of various stuff like bird cage sand, railway ballast as well as rough builders sand (after drying it in the oven).

Next up is glue, I had a big tub of PVA which I used for sealing some plasterwork in my old house, still plenty left.

I buy cheap palettes from stationery or art shops, usually just a pound or two, just give them a clean in hot water now and again to get the old paint off. I also use the cheap nylon brushes often sold for children, they are quite hard wearing but no use what so ever for decent painting.

Add some PVA to the palette then add water to make a milk like consistency.

I find doing the basing before the painting on 20 and 28mm figures easier as I am a little messy. I can easily touch up the undercoat after basing is done. Here is a chaos marauder, he will get a shield once he is finished.

Now paint the watered down glue on to the base trying not to get any on the model.

Dip the model in to the tub of sand.

You now need to wait for the glue to dry, best to leave for an hour or so. I buy a variety of paints for terrain and basing from any DIY shop with a paint mixer, pick a selection of colours from the paint charts, I use 3 colours, a dark brown and 2 lighter browns. The exact shades will vary, the colours I use are no longer in the Dulux range but they tell me they can mix them from the info on the labels.

Dulux Colour      Citadel Equivalent
Earth Glaze      Scorched Brown
Tawny Crest 1        Desert Yellow
Tawny Crest 2        Bleached Bone
Ebony Mists       Adeptus Battlegrey (for urban bases)

I again water down the paint and use a cheap brush. Capillary action should help suck the paint from the brush on to the base. I would leave these now overnight for the paint to dry. The basing mixture always looks better painted.

When dry I get my middle tone and using a flat brush, roughly drybrush on to the base. After doing a bunch of these I swap to the lighter tone and again dry brush the base. In the photo below the left figure has the middle tone whilst the right has both.

To tidy up the bases I then paint the edges with Scorched Brown. I would generally varnish a model at this point and add vegetation to the bases once dry as the varnish can flatten the materials.

Vegetation can be added to bases using a number of materials;

Sawdust flock dyed various colours
Static grass
Finely chopped foam
Silfor Clumps

These materials are easily available from manufacturers such as Noch, Woodland Scenics, Javis. Silfor clumps can be found at Mutineer Miniatures or Antenocitis Workshop. A range of suitable flock and modelling materials can also be found at Games Workshop.

Flocks and static grass can be stuck on bases with a little watered down PVA. Silfor comes stuck on to a plastic carrier, select a suitably sized piece and pull it off, you can pull apart large pieces, Silfor will need superglue to glue down to bases.

Urban Bases are done in a similar fashion using a dark grey as a base and then drybrushing a lighter grey on top. I found some railway ballast which was in a brick colour, a quick dab of watered PVA and a sprinkle of a ballast. Paint the edges with black to tidy up and finish off.

For more desert like bases I only use the two lighter shades and don't add any flock or Silfor.

Well, that's how I do it, relatively simple and I think it doesn't look too bad. You can also add other bits and pieces to the bases like spare parts from kits, bigger stones, slate pieces etc.

2011 - A preview

2011-01-03T21:58:00.001Z

What's in store for 2011, well the new year is going to be about consolidation, finishing projects and moving things forward. I am not going to be naive and suggest that I won't be starting any new projects, that could change tomorrow with the release of a new range, rule set or inspirational movie or television programme.

So it might be appropriate to run through my current projects and where they might go in 2011, first up are those I am trying to make my priority.

Fantasy 28mm

I have managed to collect a large 'Warriors of Chaos' army, this is another priority for 2011, to get some figures on the table, even if only undercoated, to get back in to Warhammer.

A chaos knight, from Games Workshop, these are multi part plastics and whilst looking great are going to be
a pain to rank up as they are pretty bulky. I will probably buy another box and make a couple up into characters
on 50mm bases rather than buying the metal model which in my experience don't always go together that well.

ACW 6mm

Here is another project that just needs a kick start and once finished is a pretty complete project with nothing else needed - I must make this a priority for January!

Baccus figures are nice and straightforward to paint. I must pull my figure and get these finished.

WW2 6mm

I have had 6mm WW2 figures for some time, I have started revamping them and adding some German opposition. Looking forward to getting some games in with these thanks to Memoir sparking my interest in WW2 again.

GHQ Panther - you can see the quality in these models, they stand up well to close up photos.

ACW 28mm

This is hopefully going to be played a lot in 2011, I have a third box of Perry plastics in the post to make up my force for Terrible Sharp Sword. I am going to make some of these as additional standard bearers which does mean I could put together a brigade for different rules, just need some artillery.

An officer from the Perry ACW plastics set, I have added an arm from the cavalry set,
as I have with some of the others and put a kepi on the end of his sabre. The head was
cut off was replaced with another from a French Infantry set from Victrix.

And now the rest;

Cold War Soviets in 6mm

Most of the armour is based and just needs finishing off, the infantry will then need painting along with any aircraft. Not too much work then it's finished. I have buildings to paint but most of those will be useful for WW2 as well.

Sci-Fi 15mm

It would be nice to add some more vehicles to my force, perhaps some trikes, quad bikes and transports.

Napoleonics 28mm

I have lots of plastics to build and paint for Sharp Practice, giving me plenty of choice for scenarios, also at some point I need British Cavalry and some artillery.

Colonials 28mm

My Zulu war collection keeps moving on, I have some more British Infantry to paint now which I found on eBay. It would be nice to have some cavalry or irregulars but I am in no hurry. Of course if some plastic colonials come out I might have to make a box.

WW2 28mm

I have bought Troops, Weapons and Tactics from Two Fat Lardies, still need to get it printed out. Might be nice to have some biggish 28mm games with armour or paint my early German Fallschirmjager.

That does seem a lot but doesn't include some other projects from way back which might fight there way back to the painting table like the MoFo Mogadishu figures or my Dark Age lead mountain (Vikings and El Cid).

Finally for all the plastic and lead that get killed this year.

2010 - A gaming and painting review

2010-12-31T13:40:00.000Z

Seems only right that as one year rolls to its end that I look back at the years gaming and modelling and see where I have been spending my time. Luckily this is easily done by going back over my previous posts.

It is clear that 2 games/periods have dominated 2010 - Ambush Alley and Zulu's. Both have have plenty of run outs and are largely completed projects, but ones that I can tickle along with new models to keep things interesting and fresh.

One other game that I have enjoyed this year is 'Memoir 44' from Days of Wonder, an excellent game with easy yet subtle mechanisms and a endless supply of expansion and scenario packs.

Unbelievably this was a recent starting hand of Memoir 44, replaying the Omaha scenario as the Germans. I couldn't believe my jammy luck which held out for the rest of the game. Sorry Ade!

So lots going on, plenty of new projects started, hopefully 2011 will see more projects finished than started.

December painting update

2010-12-31T13:33:00.000Z

I have not managed to finish my second box of Perry ACW plastics, they will be finished over the next week but I have managed some other bits and bobs.

First up are the AT-43 plaque zombies from Rackham, alas they are no more and their whole catalogue of games and miniatures have an unknown future. I bought these in November and have just touched them up a little and done some urban style basing.

Next are more Zombies from Studio Miniatures, I struggled with a few of these, not being able to get inspiration but in the end I thought 'hey they are only zombies' so slapped some Devlan Mud on and carried on.

Due to a packing error I had a duplicate miniature, the girl in the business suit and the not quite in focus figure with the glasses is the George A Romero figure which was free if you bought the 16 figure deal.

I have some more figures to paint as zombies and will do these in 2011 once I have some more of these 30mm slotta bases.

Next up is a small start to my Warhammer Fantasy Chaos army, an army I had not done before. First up is the troll from the old starter set.

Next up is the test figure I painted up for my chaos marauders, I have around 80 of these to paint so want something quite straightforward.

Finally we have two groups of chaos hounds, a nice and easy start to the project.

and

Back soon with my review of 2010.

Un-boxing day!

2010-12-26T18:03:00.000Z

Well I have not posted for a couple of weeks, the snow cancelled the last club night and the figures I painted especially for the game still remain unseen. Perhaps later in the week I will photograph them. In the meantime I have been dabbling on eBay again, I have a plastic troll for my fantasy chaos army and a box of Mantic Dwarfs just to see what they are like.

You might recall I had a couple of free ghouls, which remain unpainted at the moment. I will paint them as zombies when I do the Heresy ghouls. The dwarfs seem to have polarised opinions but you can't argue with their value for money.

Mantic's approach is simple plastic models with little assembly enabling gamers to assemble their armies quickly. The set I have here "Ironclads" seems to be the basic troopers and came via eBay for just over £7 post paid. There are considerable savings to be made by buying the various larger sets available, bring the model cost as low as 44p each. GWs dwarfs are triple the price.

All Mantic sets come in plastic storage boxes, which they suggest you store the models in once painted. The cases are pretty study and ensure the figures come in tip top condition.

Inside the case, a foam lining, 2 sprues of figures, a sprue of bases, a leaflet and a "Mantic Point". You might, if you are like me be of a certain age, remember than all Action Man stuff came with points on the boxes, you saved them up and exchanged them for goodies, this is the same. There are things for 10 points and 25 points.

Here is a close up of the sprue which holds 5 troopers, a casualty, a bulldog(!) and a severed Orc head. I'm pretty sure they could have squeezed another trooper on there but at least they are putting extras on the sprues. The bases are round which then fit into 20mm squares, this helps rank models up.

Whilst catching up on the festive telly, I have cut the fugures from the sprue and stuck them together. I have done some with the two handed hammer the rest have either smaller axes or hammers. I would have preferred round shields, reminding me of the old Imperial Dwarfs.

Here's a couple of shots of the ten assembled models. I might try and get these undercoated tonight if the snow doesn't get too much in the way.

Damn Weather!

2010-12-06T19:18:00.001Z

Well this weather saps at the enthusiasm for painting, but I have done some more on work on the next batch of Perry ACW 28mm and had the airbrush out to basecoat the 6mm Germans.

In front of the TV I also started making up some more 6mm tree bases using the Noch pine trees and the Chinese trees I bought from eBay.

Last night, my Sci-Fi force got its first outing. The figures are from GZG and the infantry are from the NAC New Anglian Confederation range.

Now strictly speaking, figures usually lose on their first outing. Dane and I played a game of Imperial Commander by TTG, now available from www.15mm.co.uk, these rules are almost 30 years old, they do have charm but show their age as modern developments have outstripped science fiction!

I may have more than my share of troops and Dane found that I was able to take out all his transport APCs and then start off on his infantry. It will be nice to try something with Tomorrows War from Ambush Alley in the new year.

I have just listened to myself get name dropped on the Bad Dice pod-cast, for my dettol stripping suggestion. Wear gloves, take it steady and the stuff will strip paint from plastic and metal in 24 hours or so.

Getting back in to the swing of things .........

2010-11-23T22:28:00.000Z

Managed to get a good start on things today, did some undercoating before driving to work which meant tonight despite being later home I have managed to move on three projects.

Added some basing to the Virus Zombies
Painted the base colour on another 48 Union figures.
Stuck newly undercoated 6mm German infantry on to lolly sticks.

Tomorrow I hope to move all these on further tomorrow to the next stage.

"The Sparks of War"

2010-11-22T22:16:00.000Z

Well I haven't managed to complete anything since the last post, although having a couple of sick days left me looking for something simple to keep me occupied. I chose to begin the base work on my Soviets for Cold War Commander.

Well I ripped through the rebasing then the weeks of playing Memoir 44 begain to catch up with me, I had taken my old WW2 Russians and began those too. Well that led to thinking as I had Russians and Americans then I should get some Germans.

So I find myself at Warfare on Sunday picking up some Adler WW2 Germans, they are currently in the garage with the undercoat started. I have also managed to drag others down this path, I hope to insert odd units in between painting ACW figures.

The other purchase of the day was a box of At-43 Virus Zombies, with the collapse of Rackham recently, one of the traders was selling boxed sets off at 2 for £10. I had wanted a set of these for a while, so a quick deal with Garry and we both have a box for a fiver, previous retail price £18.

I see these as either the product of some evil faceless corporation in a zombie apocalypse or perhaps as opponents in a near future sci-fi game. They look pretty good out of the box, I shall add some stuff to the bases and give the trousers a dry brush.

Tomorrow I hope to start getting some paint on my second batch of Perry ACW plastics and turn over the 6mm Germans and give them some more undercoat.

Remember, remember the fifth of ........

2010-11-07T22:49:00.001Z

So what have I have been up to lately, playing Memoir 44 has left me with a desire to do some to WW2 some time soon, perhaps 28mm with TW&T or / and 6mm with Blitzkrieg Commander or FoW? Walking Dead started on FX and to celebrate I painted a zombie.

I painted this one as it is a pretty unique, a zombie in a chicken suit. I also need to add some more stuff to the bases. I have also finished but not varnished the dozen Zulus with rifles. I have also done some basing work on my cold war soviets on a whim.

Tonight we played another game of Sharp Practice using our Zulu collections. We refought "Sihayo's Kraal" a classic attack on a kraal uphill.

Here's the table, the NNC are able to climb the slopes, the British have to use the track, all of the Zulus are armed with rifles and the seemed to be pretty good shots too.

Charge! The NNC charge home clearing a cave and destroying two Zulu groups after they received the only decent British volley of the game. Alas the British were unable to force on further, we'll get them next time.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T20:41:00.003Z

Not been too busy a week so I have been taking it easy on the painting front, I have some Zulus to finish for next weekend but as they are started I thought I would indulge myself by spending a little time on some other projects, I also did a bit of basing - finishing some movement trays and the Perry plastic ACW cavalry pictured here.

I was wanting to move my Chaos army on a little so I completed the assembly of the Marauders and got them ready to undercoat - then found I had run out of black! I can pick some more up tomorrow. I have 87 Marauders, 25 with each of the weapon options and some spares, by rearranging the figures I can have all the units armed the same or combination of unit sizes having made four command groups.

As it Halloween weekend I popped on 'Day of the Dead' - the third of the Romero trilogy and grabbed my Studio Miniatures zombies. I had recently undercoated these white and the details popped right out, I had to add some small pieces of plastic card into the tab slots so they would fit snugly.

Since I took the photo above I have done the basing, my usual sand mixture but in two tone greys. During the week I shall carry on with the zulus and might start a couple of these.

I also played a few games of Memoir 44 this week, a great game which is loads of fun. Looking forward to some more games this week meanwhile as everyone else does I look at the game and think Hexon and micro armour!

More Zulu's!!!

2010-10-25T22:56:00.000+01:00

At the last club we rolled out the Zulus once again, this time to test drive Sharp Practice - we were looking for a game which would give us a cinematic feel with officers doing stuff rather than being faceless models with no personalties.

We had a pretty good game, we just need to tweak the levels of Big Men and possibly the size of some of the units, we are having another go next club, so possibly some more photos then.

Here's a couple of groups of Zulus, they have some shock and maybe a casualty or two but are about to charge the lone group of Naval Brigade in front of them.

I have spent the last few days finishing the box of ACW cavalry, once they are matt vanished I will post them up here, I have done some undercoating and basing - some stuff about to be painted and others that were simply in reach when I was grabbing stuff.

This shot is a little dark, we have a second box of Perry ACW plastics, some dismounted cavalry, CMG 15mm Power Armour, Zulu riflemen and a pack of Foundry Pygmies. And no Mark this lot won't all be painted by next club!

Introducing the 76th New York

2010-10-17T13:53:00.001+01:00

I would like to introduce you to the 76th New York Volunteer Infantry, a regiment raised from the small towns and farms of central New York State, was also known as "The Courtland Regiment" after Courtland County from where many of it's recruits came. This regiment served for three years in the Army of the Potomac and saw action in most of the actions in the eastern theatre, it did see action on the first day at Gettyburg where if suffered terrific casualties due to being one of the first units on the field.

The figures are from Perry Miniatures plastic set whilst the standard is from the Flags for the Lads range.

Hearts of Oak

2010-10-16T21:28:00.002+01:00

Events in the Nineteenth Century where much like they are today, with budget and defence cuts. Armies are expensive luxuries, and Britain needed peace so that her commercial interests could prosper. Armies needed bases, bases needed defending and supplying, all these things are expensive and an alternative was to use the Royal Navy.

The Naval Brigade were a hard fighting, skilled bunch able to turn their hands to wielding a rifle or manning a field gun, manhandling the piece through swamp and across veldt. The Naval Brigade were used across Asia, Africa, Central America and the Middle East during the latter half of the century with little change to their uniforms and armament.

My collection of figures are from Perry Miniatures from their Sudan range and their Martini-Henry rifle lasting 30 years in service.

Here are a couple of shots of the figures with a smattering of Officers and NCOs.

Here's a Nordenfelt Gun, its performance was said to be impressive but was eventually outclassed by the invention of the Maxim, shooting a maximum 600 rounds per minute through it's five barrels, it's effective range was about 400 yards.

Paul

Investigating the lead mountain

2010-10-10T21:40:00.000+01:00

I have not managed to do any painting this week at all due to work and other commitments, hopefully I will remedy that tomorrow and make some progress on my ACW cavalry.

Briefly this morning I flirted with the idea of entering the Cold War tourney at Gripping Beast in January, alas the theme of the army was 'Dark Ages', up to 1066 no lances or crossbows. My existing Norman army could be used but this would have been an opportunity to upgrade the army. I have since changed my mind as I want to paint Napoleonics and ACW for Sharp Practice as well as finish my 6mm ACW.

I have brought the box of fresh WAB lead from the garage, I do have a bunch of Foundry blisters stacked away in another box, I thought I would take a little to see what I had in for a rainy day.

For Roman based games/armies, I have a unit of GB Praetorian Guard as well as a good number of A&A Numidian Foot and Mounted, which could be an allied force or perhaps a foe in a skirmish game.

Over the past few years I have collected a bunch of Spanish and Arab type figures to 'upgrade' my Norman army into Christian Spanish or Andalusian. The figures are from Artizan, Musketeer as well as Gripping Beast, and includes plenty of easy to paint Moors.

I also have a good sized bag of Dark Age figures from GB including Vikings and plenty of civilians for skirmish games as well as a even larger bag of mainly Foundry ECW foot.

I must try and get through some of this pile next year, it would be good to get some more skirmish games with the Romans and also to introduce the Normans to the club.

Reading wise I have been ploughing through Ralph Peters 'The Red Army', the only WW3 novel where the Soviets win, this has turned my mind to my 6mm Soviets languishing in the cupboard part painted and Cold War Commander. Of course not seeing Timecast's new 6mm petrol station would have helped but I suspect I will end up buying one.

And here's October!

2010-10-04T19:26:00.000+01:00

Played CY6! again last night, my four Wildcats got bounced by 6 Zeroes on the limit of the flight time, here's a Wildcats with some improvised smoke!

Paid a visit to Derby at the weekend, brought home some more Perry ACW infantry and some dismounted cavalry for Terrible Sharp Sword, the supplement for sharp Practice now available from Toofatlardies. I'm getting my interest fired up for the period and will be getting my 6mm Confederates finished soon too.

Gondor Ascendant

2010-09-29T15:50:00.000+01:00

Well I blame watching Lord of The Rings whilst painting! And eBay. The last of my successful lots came this morning and I now have roughly (because I might not have counted too well) 88 Plastics (Warriors of Minas Tirith and Men of Gondor), 2 Metal Minas Tirith Command and 6 Knights of Minas Tirith. Roughly working this lot out at retail would leave change from £120. Second hand cost from eBay has been £22.96 with £9.49 postage.

The latest figures are all being undercoated, then I will break then down in terms of bow, spear etc. I will paint the Men of Gondor and use them as Warriors although they belong to an earlier age - these are the figures I believe came with the original Fellowship version of the game, I waited for the Two Towers box, which was excellent value with 12 Riders of Rohan and 24 Uruk-Hai. Alas I sold these.

I do like the Uruks, I am not so keen on the plastic pikes - far too fragile, this was a quick photo just for eBay, the depth of field wasn't long enough hence only the rear ones are in focus.

The Riders here were painted literally in a 24 hour period. I bought the boxed game on the Saturday afternoon and there were in a game the next evening. Yes they could have been tidier but were quite an achievement for the time.

I have had a good look through the garage and dug out a set of the original Fellowship with Gandalf painted and oddly Grima Wormtongue and King Theoden. I will take my time painting the characters whilst I keep an eye out for my characters and Knights.

Painting ACW Part Three

2010-09-28T21:35:00.000+01:00

A quick update on the ACW and other bits I'm doing at the moment, first off here's a WIP of last six Naval Brigade and the first of the eBay Gondor figures. The idea with the Gondor figures is to buy them all second hand - I might have gone mad, I spent about £20 and got nearly 100 foot and 5 mounted. Some of the figures have paint on, the really bad ones are bound for the bin.

The ACW foot have had a coat of Army Painter and I have started basing them. The cavalry have been started, the horses have the basecoat and the riders started, they may be finished by the weekend.

I do like the Officers in the ACW plastics, here's a shot, shame there is no bare head option so I could impale a hat on a sword. There are bare heads in the Victix so perhaps I could do a headswap.

Finally on another whim I have made up an Officer from the Victrix French Infantry box I bought at Colours.

Projects Update

2010-09-26T16:50:00.000+01:00

I was thinking about my current projects this morning, particularly thinking of what bits and pieces I would be picking up at Derby this weekend.

The project I should be painting is my ACW Confederate 6mm army, this will be lots of fun, particularly with Black Powder. I must admit I choose Confederate on purpose knowing that I wouldn't power through it like a Union army. I must knuckle under and get these done.

Now this is the project I am currently painting, ACW 28mm for Sharp Practice. My aim is to have the first box painted before Derby and that will certainly happen they are almost finished, then come the Cavalry. At Derby I shall buy another box of Infantry, a cannon and crew and some mounted officers. For now this will be all, next year I may add dismounted cavalry and perhaps a box of plastic zouaves.

Another project with plenty to do is my 28mm Napoleonics, again currently for Sharp Practice. I have British Highlanders, French infantry and dragoons to paint. To conclude this I will need some cavalry for the Brits and some artillery.

A project with hopefully not too much work required is 6mm Soviets for Cold War Commander. Finishing the armour is a quick task, but painting the infantry will take more time but easily achievable given a couple of weeks to dedicate to it.

I decided to paint an army for the new version of Warhammer, I had never painted Warriors of Chaos before, having Bretonnians, Vampire Counts and Dark Elves before. I have collected most of these models, need to complete assembly and start the mammoth painting.

And to add to these projects I have started another! Clearly I do have other projects, which are 'stalled' awaiting inspiration such as Modern 28mm Mogadishu, 20mm Cold War and 28mm WW2. These projects will no doubt get their moment in the spotlight, but for now I am revisiting another project I sold off, this time Lord of the Rings. I am focussing on a force for Gondor using only 2nd hand figures from eBay, so watch this space.

I have finished 3 projects so far this year, all which will be revisited in time.

6mm WW2 Pacific Air War - crying out for more planes and Japanese bombers

15mm Sci-Fi - Looking to get a game with these, perhaps with Tomorrow's War before I start making plans to add to them.

28mm Anglo Zulu war - Would like perhaps the Perry Gatling Gun and some more infantry in the future.

Must be time to do some more painting .........

Painting ACW Part Two

2010-09-23T22:07:00.001+01:00

Managed to grab a couple of hours over the last few days to do the flesh and to paint the muskets.

Next colour is black, my plan is to have these, as well as the last 6 Naval Brigade, finished before next Saturday when I am going to the Derby Show. Will be keeping the shopping list short, another box of infantry, an artillery piece and perhaps some mounted officers.

Painting ACW Part One

2010-09-20T22:00:00.000+01:00

Many years ago I bought and painted many hundred Dixon 25mm ACW figures, along with friends staged a number of re-enactments at Shows in the Midlands including Halesowen, Warcon and Derby - more by the efforts of others for terrain building and general organisation we won two best of shows.

I sold off many of these figures but still have some photos, the shot below was one of a couple of units of Confederates I painted as we were a couple of units short for a particular game, in those days I was completing a thirty figure unit in a week.

My painting style has changed loads since then, my interest in ACW waned, but I wanted to put together a 6mm army and that is currently under way. More recently TooFatLardies have posted some excellent battle reports in their blog using their forthcoming expansion to Sharp Practice called Terrible Sharp Sword. This was all I needed and recently I bought a box of the Perry plastics.

Watching Merlin on the telly I soon had the figures clipped from the sprues and the few separate bits glued on, a few thin coats of paint sprayed on later and the figures were glues to bases. As I had good feedback from the painting of the sailors I decided to paint the tunics of the Union in a similar way.

Stage One

I painted the tunics in GW Regal Blue using a 'wet brush' method, making sure that I got paint in all the right places. My style tends to start messy and then gets tidier as the figures progress on.

Stage Two

Now drybrush the figures using GW Fenris grey and once dry wash the tunics with thinned down GW Baddab black.

Stage Three

The trousers were painted with GW Shadow Grey taking care not to get paint on the tunics. Whilst painting these I have also squeezed in the 6 extra Naval Brigade I bought at Colours.

Hopefully tomorrow I will base coat the flesh areas which should bring these figures to life. Even though I will give these models a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone, I will still do some highlighting, particularly on the face as it blends nicely under the tinted varnish.

I bought a random standard for these, the 76th New York which unknown to me, were one of the first union infantry regiments to engage the Confederates at Gettysburg.

Battle of Myer's Drift 1879

2010-09-19T22:14:00.000+01:00

We decided to bring out our Zulu Wars figures and replay the scenario from the Black Powder rulebook.We used our gaming mats to create a 12 x 6 table, we didn't need it quite this big but in the end it probably helped the British.

Some historical background can be found here. Basically natives ambushed a supply column which was poorly set up, straddling the river, a few stragglers managed to get away and find refuge in a nearby farmhouse. The Zulus were set up on the table whilst the British relief column came on the table in march column.

The officer commanding the Naval Brigade brought them on in good order, along with the volunteer cavalry.

The 88th commanded by Sir Marmaduke Surridge had difficulties coming on the table, rumours of the column being halted, as the officers best tableware were mislaid have so far been unproven. The Zulu impis previously looting the game surge forward to meet the British. The cavalry brigade form a screen at the farmhouse in an attempt to dissuade the Zulus.

The Zulu right horn charged and hit the cavalry who choose to stand and fire. The cavalry were driven off and the Zulus charged Sgt Booth and his stragglers in the farmhouse. Luckily for the plucky Brits the farmhouse was solidly built and helped keep the Zulu out.

The Naval Brigade turned to face and bring fire of the Zulus causing casualties as the 88th finally moved on to the table, to find Zulus charging towards them.

The Zulus pulled back from the farmhouse unable to break in, as the Royal Impis charged the 88th.

After much fighting only one company of the 88th remained and after breaking an Impi surged forward and then found itself outnumbered and surrounded.

In an effort to take some of the pressure from the 88th, the NNC and volunteer cavalry charged in. The cavalry found themselves charged in return.

Finally after a firefight with the Zulus, the stragglers leave the farmhouse under the cover of the Naval Brigade and begin the retreat from the table.

The game took us about five hours to play, both sides took casualties both the Brits got the stragglers out, so we happily called it a draw. It is clear that the Zulus particularly can be quite brittle and need the 'generals' to remove their casualties. Now we have played a game this size, we can certainly certainly do this on a normal club night. We will be trying the rules with Sudan 15mm, Napoleonic 6mm and eventually ACW 6mm too.

Flocking 'eck

2010-09-16T22:02:00.000+01:00

Spent some time tonight flocking the last of the figures for the weekends big game. First off here are the Zulu casualty figures (Old Glory, weapons and shields from a variety of sources).

Again more casualties from Old Glory, the weapons and odd shields are again a mix of Foundry, Wargames Factory and Old Glory.

Perry Miniatures Naval Brigade, I bought another pack Sunday and will probably by the Gatling gun in the future.

Will get some better pictures of these when I have some annual leave and can spend some time getting all the lighting etc. right.

Some Foundry Brits from eBay, I touched these up and gave them some varnish and flock. These will bolster the British forces this weekend.

A couple of shots of the Naval Brigade command figures.

These are odd Zulus rescued from eBay, some married and some in ceremonial dress.

Painting Day

2010-09-14T22:04:00.000+01:00

Today I had a painting day. Now and again I like a day off in the week and just paint all day, good loads done today. Just so Mark L doesn't have a fit, I only finished the figures today!

I have finished the Renedra tents, whilst I am no expert on tents I feel these are good for as far back as Napoleonics. These are excellent value for money and well worth buying.

The Perry farmhouse is also finished, I have not bothered with the fences, I will do those another time as there wasn't really enough with the farmhouse to make it usable, you can buy further lengths from Renedra.

Finally I have finished the casualties for Black Powder, to allow for larger units I have numbered the sides from 1 to 4 and marked a further side as Shaken, a further dozen Zulus, and the remains of the Naval Brigade. You will also see some more redcoats in there, I was worried we might be short of Brits for Saturdays game so I bought some off ebay and tarted them up a bit. All these have had a coat of Army Painter and will be matted down tomorrow.

Punch Buggy Red!

2010-09-13T22:27:00.001+01:00

Colours 2010

Had an unexpected trip to Colours at Newbury racecourse on Sunday. Not a venue I had visited before but I had been to the old venue, Reading Hexagon plenty of times. Split over three floors, the venue was a good size and reasonable light and airy. Despite going on a Sunday, traditionally the quietest, the show seemed quite busy and there was a bit of a buzz.

I was there with a plan and pretty much stuck to it, buying figures for current projects and only one which was vaguely new. Here's a little photo collage of pretty much what came from the bag at the end of the day.

So I have a box of Victrix French infantry for Sharp Practice, another pack of Perry Naval Brigade (definitely not painted for the weekend), some Foundry paints, more plastic figures this time for the ACW variant of Sharp Practice which I have wangled a freebie copy, some flags and finally a pack of 15mm Sci-Fi figures from Critical Mass Games. Finally I grabbed a pack of Baccus ACW casualties, these will serve as stamina markers for Black Powder.

I have been wanting to see the figures from CMG for a while, the figures look great as do the walkers and their building range, I am not convinced by the four legged walkers. The figures look taller than my GZG figures and are certainly more expensive.

The Perry figures have a completely different approach from the Victrix. Some of the figures only need their hats sticking on, another few have arms as well. In all the box took perhaps 90 minutes to assemble. They are already undercoated and stuck on to bases. The Victrix French will need lots more cleaning up as some parts have flash and approximately half a dozen parts per figure, sixty figures in the box equals plenty of work. Once the French are done I only need some artillery for the French and British and some British Cavalry to complete the project.

Finally tomorrow is a painting day, up early and a paint brush in hand all day to get things finished for Saturdays all day game, to make up for yesterdays trip to Newbury, at least I can avoid a day of "turn it off and back on again" - the day job!

Black Powder - trial game

2010-09-06T21:57:00.000+01:00

Our next all day game is scheduled for 2 weeks and we wanted to at last give Black Powder a try, seemed like a good excuse to get out the Zulu figures. Basically we were trying to have as many situations crop up as might arise in a "real" game, so we ensured we had a good selection of troops.

The Zulu force comprises 6 Impis (one of which was a Royal Impi), a skirmish unit and 3 leaders (2 Ldr 8 and 1 Ldr 9). Opposing the Zulus was 2 units of British Line infantry, 2 units of Naval Brigade, 1 troop of Frontier Light Horse, a Gatling and a cannon. Again 2 Ldr 8 and 1 Ldr 9.

The following battle report was written up by our own roving reporter Mr Stephens.

Zulu turn 1- the first brigade moved slowly on to the top of the hill in front of them,while the other 2 brigades flew 36" down table towards the British.

British turn 1 - Frontier Light Horse galloped towards the Zulus on the hill to just inside Carbine range and fired and missed, the artillery and regular infantry moved slowly up and fired on the main Impis without effect. The Naval Brigade moved to the top of the hill in front of them but the Native Contingent and gatling gun couldn't keep up. The Sailors fired and also did little damage

Turn 2 Zulu - The Impis on the hill ran headlong at the cavalry who evaded back and only just got out the way as the Zulus charged a massive 36", the main body of zulus split as the skirmish unit moved to cover the Naval Brigade and the Impis charged another 36" into the British Regulars, followed by another 2 Impis in support also managing this impressive distance.

During the combat phase the Zulus won one and the Brits won one the zulus passed their break test and the British failed theirs and broke (this we got wrong as there was a special rule for the British meaning they pass their first break test as if they rolled a 12, also they could also reroll 1 failed save).

Turn 2 - British. The cannon and horse moved slowly to reposition, as the Gatling gun came up and made a lot of noise but not a lot else. The Naval Brigade inflicted damage on the skirmishers as the Native Contingent worked round the flank during the continuing combat, the British won and the zulus fled 12".

Turn 3 saw the Zulu skirmishers charge the gattling gun but died after a failed break test, the main Impis tried to reform and the right flank failed to move.

Turn 3 - British saw the Naval brigade move to cover the Gatling Gun and the combined fire of the artillery, cavalry and British regulars drive off an Impi.

Turn 4 saw the Royal Impi charge the Naval Brigade and an Impi into the regulars in a nasty round of combat which saw both Impis and 1 Naval Brigade unit destroyed (although they should have passed their test - we missed the rule).

Turn 4 British - saw the Native Contingent charge the flank of another Impi which succumbed to the flank attack and finished the game with only 1 Zulu unit left.

A very enjoyable game, the speed of the movement can suprise, the fire from the Gatling is not effective at all. The Zulus charge is very good but countered by the British regulars and Naval Brigade passing their first break test.

In all this bodes pretty well for the all day game in a couple of weeks.

Chocks Away!

2010-08-16T19:29:00.000+01:00

Last night saw the first run out of Check your 6! We decided to try the scenario called 'The Swede' this is a scenario based on historical engagement between a lone Dauntless dive bomber and three Japanese Zero fighters. The US pilot is an Ace whilst the Zeros are rated Green due to fatigue.

I agonised for ages about flight stands, really wanting something that would represent altitude and speed, for now I used the Raiden flight stands, cutting off the pegs and replaced them with a magnet. I found the peg holes on the underside of the aircraft were exactly the right size to take a smaller magnet. Speed and Altitude are represented by two small dice.

First time you play a new set of rules you have to work stuff out as you go along, you will always make mistakes. I scored hits on two of the three Zeroes last night and we missed the Out of Controls rolls out as well as the fact that Zeroes lose a point of Agility when moving at top speed.

I made a mistake by making too extreme a turn, dropping my speed down. I was then trapped by the Zeroes. A hit from a cannon caused a catastrophic explosion blowing the Dauntless from the sky.

The rules worked well, we are going to repeat this scenario at a future time swapping sides. I have ordered the Guadalcanal campaign book which should match up with my current collection.

Meanwhile on the next table, an All Things Zombie game was under way, I must get around to painting my zombies, need to see the chicken man on the table. I also picked up my copy of the new WAB rules, must be time to get the Normans out soon.

Meanwhile on the painting table, the Zulus and British casualties are coming on well and will probably be finished by the end of the week. Here's a blurry out of focus photo!

The models I had soaking in Dettol where pulled out, the paint seems to have been stripped. However the process seemed to produce a horrid black tar like substance last seem coming out of peoples eyes on The X-Files. I have managed to clear up, the toothbrush was chucked away, the rubber gloves are still black but the sink is clean!

Check your 6! aircraft ready for the weekend.

2010-08-13T20:48:00.001+01:00

Well the aircraft are all ready for Sunday, here's a photo of the planes mounted on the magnetic stands. Some of the decal film still shows, I did hope that the decal solution would have stopped the silvering, I may give them a coat of Humbrol Mat-cote in the future to see if it fixes it.

Sunday will see the first game of Check your 6!, Mark has a blue hex mat, the quick reference sheets are laminated, just need a reread the rules.

The aircraft are from Raiden Miniatures, the little magnets are from ebay.

We have a Zulu game coming up, first in 2 weeks in a run through of Black Powder, then two weeks after an all day game. I have rounded up some more stuff, 12 more Foundry Zulus and both British and Zulu dead packs from Old Glory to use as casualty markers. I need to paint the Naval brigade too, need to pull the finger out.

Stripping

2010-08-07T18:23:00.000+01:00

Every now and again you might want to remove paint from a miniature, perhaps it's an old figure or one you bought second hand. Stripping paint can be a very dangerous and messy procedure, often the chemicals used are very toxic. Many different people use different products including commercial products like Nitromorse or oven cleaner.

Following some research on various forums I decided to try the disinfectant Dettol, which contains Pinesol. Always wear rubber gloves, do not let undiluted Dettol touch your skin.

I popped some miniatures in a jam jar, then covered them with Dettol and screwed the lid on. I am going to leave these for a few days before I start to look at them.

In the picture below you can see the paint has already started to come off, this photo was taken after about four hours.

And again below shows some plastic horses with a rider still glued on. I was concerned that the plastic might be attacked so I removed them after 5 hours, washing the horses off in lots of cold water, the rider went in to the jam jar.

I shall need an old toothbrush to get the paint off I suspect but I shall wait until later in the week, possibly even the weekend as the liquid can't harm the figures.

Contracting Trouble part 3

2010-08-02T20:58:00.000+01:00

Last night I ran the Contracting Trouble in Ambush Alley for Ade and Garry, this was the third time I'd played or run this scenario.

Ade managed to get a win for the US Forces, Garry had dreadful luck with his dice and reinforcements. Meanwhile the postman brought me a 16 year old chaos mage I bought off ebay.

The ruinous powers

2010-08-01T15:59:00.000+01:00

Have I sold my soul to the ruinous powers? Fear not, I only rent it out! As if I didn't have enough projects on the go, GW release a new edition of Warhammer. The enormous and lavish rulebook is a treat to look at and after a very good internet offer I found myself with both the new rulebook and the Warriors of Chaos battalion.

Good deals, as much as 17.5% off with free postage can be found on the internet and many second hand bargains are on ebay. Luckily for me, Ade had a selection of miniatures surplus to his requirements, so a trip to his garage and I now have more than 2000 points of troops to paint or rebase.

Here's a small unit of Chaos Knights dedicated to Nurgle.

Next up, an older unit of Chaos Warriors, slightly converted to raise their heads, dedicated to Khorne.

Finding myself with about 70 Marauders, I have decided to initially organise them in to units of 25 in 5 ranks. I am making each unit with a different weapon option, I am fairly liberal with my depictions of units, so long as the first two ranks of a unit look right then I am happy.

Marauders with hand weapons and shields.

Marauders with flails.

Marauders with two handed weapons.

Hellcannon

6mm aircraft for a game in a couple of weeks, they need some finishing off and decals.

Perry Miniatures American farmhouse, this will do duty as a mission station for Anglo Zulu games.

Finally, here are the Renedra tents, usable for many periods from Napoleonics to World War 1.

I have a game later, more Ambush Alley, so have some in game photos to post in a few days.

summer All dayer!

2010-07-18T21:16:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the clubs summer all dayer, a battle for Perdiswell airfield. Stu put together an after action report and posted in here on the Gentlemen's Wargames Parlour. I spent much of the game trying to get across the Birmingham canal, in the end we scraped a victory.

The next all dayer will be another game set in the Anglo-Zulu wars using the Black Powder rules from Warlord Games.

Meanwhile I decided to crack the new airbrush, bought over a year ago, to put some paint down on some Raiden Miniatures 1/300th aircraft. First up it's the US Navy.

The airbrush is an Iwata Eclipse CS bought from Cammett at a modelling show last year.

I hope to get these finished over the next few days. More Photos later.

100 posts!

2010-07-12T20:55:00.001+01:00

Well this is my 100th post, lots of stuff to share. First off is a em4 Future War sniper sculpted by Mark Copplestone for Grenadier Games. This was my entry for a recent speed paint on The Guild wargaming forum.

Next up for WW2 and VBCW are some Crusader Miniatures early war British, I was short of squad LMGs so the four Bren teams are more than enough. Lovely sculpts and nice and straightforward to paint.

Now here are some GW Bretonnians from the fifth edition boxed set. These are very historical and this unit managed to slip the net when I sold off the rest. I have tarted this unit up with a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone to improve the contrast and provide some much needed shade and definition.

This weekend was Tewkesbury Medieval Festival which I had visited in the past but decided to pay another visit as it is so close. The festival is well worth a visit and this year the great weather certainly pulled people in. There were approximately two thousand re-enactors from all over the UK, Europe and even Japan. Much of the traders are there to sell replica kit to the re-enactors but others sold a variety of wares - certainly something for everyone.

I have been reading a book on the Air War over Korea which I though might be a good topic for a game with the end of prop driven aircraft and the beginning of jet fighters dogfighting. Hopefully I should have the Wessex Games Airwar C21 ruleset arrive tomorrow and the Jet version of Check your 6! has just been released.

Continuing my interest in the Korean War, I have bought a copy of the Max Hastings book on eBay, I gave up trying to order it from the library as the local copy seems to have gone missing. I may also re-purpose some of my WW2 micro armour to make some armies for Cold War Commander.

Next time I hope to be able to show you my Aircraft Control Tower, almost finished but still camera shy for now.

I sunk your battleship

2010-07-05T20:25:00.001+01:00

Last night Mark's WW1 naval game had it's first outing. The name of the ruleset escapes me for the moment but they were easy to understand and fast to play. Mark's collection is based on the Battle for the Falkland islands, the ships are from Skytrex's 1/3000th range, nicely based with waves and the ship's name - essential in this scale.

Tonights scenario was based on the Battle of Coronel, set late in October 1914. The German navy caught up with a British formation and severely mauled them resulting in the Royal Navies first defeat in a century.

My ships comprised SMS Scharnhost, Gneisenau, Leipzig, Nurnberg and Dresden. The Dresden was sunk losing all hands after succumbing to a fire in her engine room. The elderly British Battleship HMS Canapus fired on Gneisenau outranging it's guns, as they closed the distance, Gneisenau returned fire and a fluke shot caused the poorly stored British ammunition to explode tearing through the ship and sending her to the deep.

The British cruisers HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth faced the Germans, returning their fire but both were engaged at close range by guns and torpedoes until they too sank.

This was an excellent game and proved that you don't have to spent a fortune on large armies or fancy figures to have a good game - the blue cloth used for the sea cost more than the miniatures used. In a similiar vein I have a set of 1/285th Raiden Miniatures planes for the Battle of Midway as well as a rule set but have been put off by a lack of a hex map - I have an idea to work around that now so perhaps I will see those painted sooner rather than later.

Hoplite Shields in 15mm

2010-06-29T22:18:00.000+01:00

I wanted to do a good job on the shields of my Athenian hoplite DBA army, the Xyston figures are probably the best on the market. I certainly wasn't going to attempt to paint them so that left decals.

You have two choices either conventional waterslide decals from VVV or the more tricky decals from Little Big Man Studios. In the end I choose the LBM decals as the VVV sheets are in a single colour meaning I would have to buy many more to get a reasonable selection, the LBM decals were just a single sheet.

The LBM decals are tricky, you cut them out, peel off the front clear plastic, place them on the shields, add a drop of water and after a couple of seconds the backing paper slides off.

Now as the shields are bigger than the decals getting them centered is a nightmare. Once on they can't be moved only scratched off so take care, and have lots of patience.

In the end hopefully they will look like the cover art on the box;

Wartime in the Vale

2010-06-28T20:17:00.004+01:00

Here's a photo montage of this weekends Wartime in the Vale event. Plenty of vehicles, reenactors and stuff. Now with added Owls!

Copplestone Bio-chem troopers

2010-06-27T16:24:00.000+01:00

Mysterious figures have been seen roaming around the city, these dark clad figures with their faces covered by gas masks are armed with a variety of weapons. As yet their motives are unknown.

The figures are from Copplestone Castings Bio-Chem squad available here, the range is well sculpted, easy to paint and delivery is quick.

Similar figures are also available from em4 who own the original sculpts, these are slightly different, on slotta bases and a little cheaper. I have also finished 16 early war British for WW2 and VBCW, these have been painted with 'Army Painter Strong Tone' and are looking a little shiny, photos once matted.

I have been feeling guilty lately for not attending the local history events near me, yesterday I visited "Wartime in the Vale" - mainly a show for enthusiasts of period military motor vehicles, with some WW2 re-enactors based at the local Ashdown Camp. There are plenty of photos, I'll split them over a few posts.

Next up is the Battle of Tewkesbury re-enactment in a couple of weeks, entry is free and is well worth of visit, after that I have a mind to walk the site of the Battle of Evesham as near as I can to the anniversary as I can.

Armed Forces Day

2010-06-26T17:50:00.000+01:00

Today is Armed Forces Day in the UK, events are being held across the country to remember veterans and serving members of the Armed Forces.

We all have friends and family members who have served, today is our day to remember them.

Weekend Painting

2010-06-19T19:25:00.000+01:00

I have had some painting inspiration this week so with DVDs on the PC, I have been painting a variety of stuff as my fancy struck.

I had a package from North Star this week, 4 packs of early war British infantry. These will add some much needed firepower, in the form of Bren Guns, to my Home Guard. I also had the last of the VBCW source books giving me some more inspiration for our mini campaign.

To start with I have given the uniforms a thinned down coat of Vallejo British Uniform, and I will add another coat tomorrow.

This week I have also been adding paint to my 6mm ACW forces. I will have some Zouaves complete soon.

Last year I also bought an Athenian DBA army from Xyston. I undercoated these last year and got them out last night a slapped some flesh on them. I will tidy them up with some tunics later. They are more expensive than other 15mm ranges, fiddly with separate shields and spears but they are fab and a army is quite small.

Must start the control tower tomorrow, it will be a simple box, with big windows on one side.