Its been a while............

Since I posted anything, as far as painting goes, it's been a bit quiet here, thanks in main to the new puppy. But she is settling down a little so the scores on the doors for December so far are


Bought : 1
Painted : 90

Bought??? 1, uno, ein????????????

here it is its a new leader for my SOBH Witch Elf Warband, I just couldnt resist her when I saw her on EBay.

Not the best paint job in the world, but it'll do, now to sort out some Skaven for an opposing warband.

Only posting this because

Well the hound from hell is simply destroying any chance whatsoever of getting things done, so I thought I'd post the latest army incomplete.

This is a 1940 3000pt German army based on the so-called 2000pt Pendraken army pack, I say so-called because their packs are/were pointed up for BKC, but havent changed since BKC II came out. Ok, I did have to add a little, but in reality it was a little. Lemme see, what I added was 4 Sdkfz 251 (as 4 trucks and 8 bases of infantry doesnt work anymore), couple of halftracks to pull the AT guns as theyre not likely to be static, 3 75mm howitzers (simply because I like dropping arty rounds) and a Stuka (cos I had one!), and that comes to 3000pts on the nose.


As can be seen the infantry need some more paint, all the armour and the trucks need some highlighting, but all in all its a fairly nice looking army..

A little ray of sunshine

Well after the death of my last dog, my wife and I agreed on no more pets, lets just say that resolution lasted a grand total of three weeks. Meet the little cutie thats literally hogging all of my time.

She's tiny, only being 6 weeks old, but she is so much work and is so attached to me that I sometimes think that she's attached to my ankle by a piece of elastic, never more than 18" away from me unless she's up to mischief.

A little solo BKC game

Since the missus is in Turkey on holiday this week I thought I'd haul out my Normandy armies for BKC, its been ages since I played with these fellas.

Turn 1
US
US Right wing manage to enter the table and get their single Infantry company to move once up the table, Left wing fail and their tank company and infantry company dont want to
play, the CO manages to get his tanks onto the table on the road but there was insufficient room to get his lorried infantry company on.
German
Because of the extreme range the only thing the German CO could do was get a single shot off with his mortars at the lead tank, all rounds missed of course.
Comment : as this is an 8 turn scenario, Billy Yank had better get the lead out of his pants.

Turn 2
US
US Right wing manages a double move up the table but the village is still in the distance for the GIs, the left wing manages to find their "bottle" and make a single move onto
the table, but the CO manages some fantastic dice rolling and his command manages to get up the table and through the exit of the bocage/wall barrier and the lead tank in close
range of the village defenders. Unluckily as these guys havent fired yet and are hidden behind a wall they couldnt fire on them.
German
The HQ commanding the StuGs, manages to get them to move them up to the wall, then propmtly, rolls a double one, no prizes for guessing what they were used for, FIRE!!, FIRE!!,
end result, 2 dead Shermans. The CO can see a nice juicy soft target about to exit the road and calls in his mortars again, but alas only 1 hit and no suppression.

Turn 3

US

The US Right wing failed to do anything, the FAO with them was having a bad day as he had the village in sight but he couldnt get the damn radio to work. The US Left did manage

to get his tanks and infantry to move up the table. In the centre the CO was having kittens about his vunerable infantry still in their trucks so they were tucked away in the

shelter of the woods and dismounted. The single Sherman tried to exact revenge for his buddies but the gunner was nervous and all shots smacked straight into the wall protecting

the StuGs.  

German

Everyone named Hans, Shmitt, and Fritz must have decided just to keep their heads down as both the HQ and the CO failed their rolls.

Turn 4
US
Both flanks failed to activate and the FAO was still having trouble with his radio, the CO however managed to withdraw his remaining Sherman outside the StuGs range and get his
infantry forward to the edge of the woods.
German
The HQ activated the StuGs plus the infantry facing the woods and poured a storm of fire into the GIs milling about there destroying a single platoon, the CO called in his
mortars onto a platoon he could see on a hilltop, dishing out 2 hits and suppressing them.

Turn 5
US
Finally the FAO gets his radio to work and the mighty Priests open up but fail to inflict any hits on the target. The right wing HQ gets his GIs moving but because of
suppression theyre becoming a little strung out. The left wing HQ gets his tanks moving and his infantrys as well. In the centre the CO decides to pull his infantry back into
the woods to prevent a bloodbath, he needs more there before trying an assault.
German
While theyre still outnumbered and outgunned, things have been going well so far, so as he has no targets apart from dropping some mortar rounds (and missing with all of them)
the CO decides to just sit tight and wait it out.

Turn 6

US

The right flank HQ rolls well and gets his GIs up to the edge of the woods but fails to get them shooting, the FAO manages to actually hit something this turn but only does 1

hit, the left flank HQ fumbles his dice yet again. The CO in frustration has his lonely Sherman start firing HE at the troops in the church with no effect.

German

The HQ once again yells FIRE!! to his troops who once again obliterate a single platoon and decide that thats enough for just now. The CO call in mortar fire yet again and does

3 hits and suppresses a single platoon.

Comment

With only 2 turns remaining the US team will need to do something spectacular sometime very soon.

Turn 7
US
Both HQs are showing signs of fatigue now, their rolls were nothing short of abysmal. The FAO managed to call in the arty again, this time slap on top of the German CO, but only
inflicted 3 hits and no suppression, so effectivly no effect. The CO, by this time I imagine frothing at the mouth with frustration, issued multiple orders to his remaining
Sherman to get the Krauts in the church, 6 salvoes later and only 2 hits with no suppression.
German
Again the HQ only got 1 order off, but it did put 5 hits on one platoon and suppressed it. The CO once again used his mortars to good effect, inflicting 2 hits and suppression
to an infantry platoon.

Turn 8
US
The high point of the game for the US was they managed to assault the MG unit and destroy it and managed to get a single platoon over the wall and into the village outskirts,
the bad point of this was it exposed this platoon to a hail of fire from all the infantry packed into the buildings, yep you guessed died to a man. On the other flank the
Shermans finally got into firing position and laid into the MG unit on that flank, couple of hits on the MG but nothing serious. The arty wandered off and managed another couple
of hits on the MG. The CO once again had that Sherman pound the church to little effect.
German
as mentioned above, pretty much all the German response to the US activity was using initiative fire to blow away the impudednt platoon that crossed the wall.

Conclusion :
Once again BKC provides a quite satisfying game, given that the German "player" was outnumbered, out-tanked, and outgunned, under most rulesets, it would have been a walkover
for the US player. If not for the simple and elegant command system, that consistently buggered-up the US plans to split up the StuGs and go for a gunfight then it still might
have been. But thats the joy of BKC, even playing solo, I could play that one again and it would be different next time, the Arty might drop every turn and do some damage, the
Tanks might actually arrive before the last turn, etc, etc.
The result if anyone is interested was a minor victory to the Germans, they inflicted 25% casualties to the US player for the loss of a single MG unit.

A small glimmer of hope

Yeah some more small guys from Pendraken arrived today, the core of my Warmaster Dwarf army arrived today.

Agreed that its not that many but its all high quality troops, so the main thing is that this weekend we scattered the dogs ashes in her favourite place, "her" park, and with the arrival of these fellas, my mood has lightened somewhat. Not only that but "her indoors" has bought me a new toy, a new netbook, which I'm posting this on.

Well no work getting done any time soon.

Yep no painting, no gaming, no building, about the only thing I'm capable of this week at least is to burst into tears with no provocation at all.

Why?

Well yesterday I said goodbye to the second love of my life, my constant companion for the last 5 years, since I was medically retired.

She may not look like much, she was a mongrel rescued from the dog pound, 15 years ago, but a gentler more loving soul never walked this planet. She was worse off than me as far as health problems went, she had Arthrytis, Pancreatitus, a heart murmer and had had 3 strokes, but as soon as she saw someone the tail started wagging and she was tottering over looking for a little pet, she loved everyone and they loved her. But yesterday she had another big stroke, I spent an hour sitting on the pavement opposite the house waiting for her to recover enough to get on her feet, and when the vet came in his advice was the worst immaginable. So now she's in that big park in the sky, chasing balls all day, but I miss her terribly.

September and Autumn have arrived

Well August passed quickly for me, and if you're even slightly interested, the scores on the doors for the month were:

Bought : 0, yep Nada, Nowt. (unbelievable as that might seem)

Painted : 316

Unfortunatly this month so far its

Bought : 117

Painted : 3

Other diversions are a whole load of new cardstock building to be made, need a good few for a Sharpe-a-like game of Drums and Shakos. Also just bought the Ganesha Games, Flying Lead rules, which to be honest look very interesting, there's a slew of stuff in there about WW2 which is always good, but the main reason for purchase is to see if I can get some mileage out of my old GW models. I could of course use the original 40K rules but IMHO they are absolute crap, and are only written/re-written(constantly) with a view of foisting more and more over-priced product onto you. So looks like an interesting month coming.

And yes, Mexican Dave, I did say no new ruleset this month, but I couldnt resist these.

As promised

A quick piccy of the completed Orc horde, thats 2000pts worth.

Now thats got me thinking and lookin at the lists, well long story short, I find I have enough to expand that lot up to 3000pts (BIG battle size), works out to 28 units and 13 characters. For an Orc general keeping that lot under control is going to be a nightmare. I must have a chat with Mexican Dave and see just how big his High Elf force can get up to.

So whats next?

After finishing a project (like the Turks) I always feel a little deflated, and start wondering what to do next. So after a quick rummage and a lot of "well I really dont wanna do those just now!" I've settled on giving my Warmaster Orcs and Goblins a little painting love. Not least because they are almost at the 2000pt Standard Game size. The list looks a little like this :

Troops

4 Units of Orcs           240
4 units of Goblins        120
1 unit of Black Orcs    110
1 unit of Trolls             110
1 unit of Ogres            105
4 units of Wolf Riders  240
3 units of Boar Riders  330
1 Giant                        150
1 Rock Lobber             75

Total                        1480

Characters

Orc General                95
Crown of command  100
2 Orc Heroes           160
Orc Shaman               45
2 Goblin Heroes         90
1 Goblin Shaman        30

                                520
                              1480
                              2000

Any comments on this list would be welcome.

And look forward to a piccy of the completed army in a few days (I only have 2 units to paint, which makes me put on my happy face)

Turkish Project Finished

Well last Saturday just after having my first game of Black Powder (highly enjoyable) I let my mouth run off a bit and volenteered to host a game of If the Lord spares us. Talk about giving yourself the proverbial kick up the ass, there were still a ton of stuff to paint, so I waved my magic paintbrush in their general direction and here's both the Turkish and Imperial brigades, finished at last.

Not too shabby really, two and a half weeks from start to finish.

Update on the Turkish project

Yeah I know I've been a bit quiet so here's what I've managed to get done lately.

So there's still a lot of bare metal glaring at me, but its looking like progress, not good progress I'll grant you, but definitly progress.

ACW mayhem

Well, Mexican Dave knew this post was coming, on Saturday the pair of us decided to revisit our ACW ruleset, Peter Pigs Civil War Battles. So I made up the army list, checked that the neccessary troops were packed up and trucked it all along to the Angus wargames club.

Dave's luck was on its usual form on Saturday, anyone whos played a Piggy ruleset before knows that there's always an attacker and a defender and while both armies will be equal at the start of the game, the rules can be very cruel to the defender. Dave's pre-battle dice rolls as the defender saw him trying to keep a few units on the table and losing stands from each one. Trying a different approach and trying not to lose any more stands saw most of what he had left being shunted of the table to his re-inforcement area.

Anything close to the edge of the table was what Dave tried turn after turn to get onto the table, we had roughly a foot of table either side that wasnt in play. At the end of each turn saw Dave desperatly trying to roll a 9 on 2d6 for each missing regiment or gun and failing. Even my friendly advice didnt help "try bringing them on via the road, it adds +2 to your roll" saw Dave fail roll after roll. He was even rolling miserably on the countdown rolls (In Piggy games, there's a countdown to the end of the battle) he kept rolling 1s, the defender is usually wanting to make the battle as short as possible as it gives the attacker fewer turns to take objectives. The countdown for this game started at 21, so had he rolled a few 6s, the game could have been over in 4 turns. What made matters worse was Dave had managed to roll 2 good division generals and a brilliant Corps general, while I had saddled myself with a right bunch of numptys, those units that you can see trailing quite far behind my front line, just kept trailing further and further behind for the whole game, due to my numpty generals not being able to communicate with them, so I was really fighting with about half my army.

Long story short this was the situation when Dave finally raised the white flag, all those rebs at the top of the piccy, just ignore them, theyre dead, and there were a couple of my units closing in from the bottom. Result was, well we didnt bother calculating it, all the objectives were claimed by the Yankee invader, with very few casualties. But the Gallant Gennelmun of the Sowth were indeed heard to declare that "The South WILL rise again!"

Oh dear, another distraction.

Those wonderful guys at Pendraken finally sent this months order out, a brigade of British Imperialist troops and a brigade of Johnny Turks.

Following a discussion with Mexican Dave, who's going to be giving the Nik Harwood treatment to his Persian army, I decided to depart from my normal methods of painting before basing. But when I was doing it I did dig my heels in and just couldnt bring myself to do it with the Artillery chappies, those are the ones in the piccy stuck down onto card strips.

I think I'm gonna have fun with this period and ruleset, can anyone say "Lawrence" ????

The Germans are done

Well Dave, looks like we'll have to have that Force on Force game sometime soon, I got fed up with you faffing about with those Russian pygmies and painted up the German patrol.

1st Battalion of Austrians complete

Based for Napmaster, a Warmaster variant, as the Austrian field battalions were considerably bigger than most countries, in this variant the Fusilier battalions are 4 bases big rather than the normal 3.

A long way to go yet before these see the table, another 4 of these "German" battalions then 3 Hungarian ones. The main difference between them is the "German" units have white trousers and a helmet, the Hungarians have blue or grey trousers and wear a shako.

The main decision I have to make now is do I actually want to do different colour cuffs and facings on each unit (as they should be) or do I do them all the same? Doing them the same makes sense in that theres less sorting out post game, but it does feel like cheating a bit.

Gruntz finally released

Well I'm hyped, just bought the final release version of these rules, Mexican Dave has as well and he's so impressed that he bought some figures to use with them. No mean feat when Dave is on an austerity drive to NOT buy any figures. But what am I blathering about, well the easiest way to find out is to look here http://www.gruntz.biz/ lots of nice eye-candy, battle reports with lots of piccies. But what makes these rather special is the price, its around about the £5.50 mark, that varies with the USD exchange rate.

The Brits are done

Well me and Mexican Dave have decided to try out Force on Force, but being a pair of cheapskates (and the fact that I already had bunch of figures) we decided to try it out using the WW2 scenarios from the PDF version. Dave promptly dissapeared in the wilds of Kirriemuir with 60 or 70 Germans leaving me to get on with the Brits for the scenario "Watching Jerry" and here they are.

As mentioned in an earlier post I have succumbed to the "need more" syndrome and bought another box of these guys, well you cant field a Brit force without PIATs or Vickers can you?

Not a good start to the month

I stupidly followed an interesting link on TMP, and yes, it's led me into yet another new period. It does look very different to what I normally play however but who can resist the thought of having massed cavalry, heavy machine guns and tanks all on the same battlefield? Yep its WW1, but before you switch off totally, theres no blasted fields of shell shattered mud and very few trenches involved. The rules are If The Lord Spares Us by Too Fat Lardies and its the gallant British Empire vs the foul JohnnyTurk, think Lawrence of Arabia for some inspiration. Buying and having a quick read through of these has led to another drain on my wallet this month in the shape of 2 Pendraken starter armies, a mere 270 figures though.

Pendraken despite Leon saying there were no new Napoleonic Austrian releases this month did in fact have some, although to be fair these are Hungarian regiments, so another 125 figures bought.

And with the WW2 purchases mentioned earlier thats a grand total of 467 bought so far this month, just as well that the taxman chose this month to stop raping my pension and give me a chunk of change back.

The end of the beginning?

Or the beginning of the end? To misquote Churchill.

Totals for June

Bought 185 (still havent arrived yet :( )
Painted 192

June's hitlist item, well and truly done, so all in all a good month, so its time to point my fevered brain at what I want to do with next month, July. I did have a whacky idea of starting a 10mm Dwarven army but since last night common sense has broken out here in the bunker. Mexican Dave has been cracking on with his 1/72 PSC Russians, so this morning I've been rooting out several untouched sprues of Valiant Germans, theres about 100+ figures still on the sprues plus about 40 in various stages of painting. Thats not to mention that Dave dissapeared up the road with about 60 of the  little  big buggers. So thats this coming months project, get a full platoon of these guys assembled with supporting weapons and purchase some support in the shape of some Pz IVs for them. I'd like to add some Hanomags or Trucks as well, simply because all the cool Panzergrenadiers cant be expected to walk around like some peasant Russians.

WHOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just looked and found out that although the Armourfast range of quick build stuff has gone up, used to be about £8 for two tanks, now the average seems to be just short of a tenner, but theyve gone a snuck a couple of essentials past my radar. Namely the ubiqeutous Pz IV and the long awaited Hanomag, well that'll be my German platoon having a couple of each, obviously.

So that looks like all I can sensibly buy for this project so a very light months spending.

Bought for July, 4.

Update, because of the "must have more" syndrome, I've just bought 68 more Valiant Tommies, my excuse is that I cant find the Vickers MGs or the PIATS that I built..

Update 2 : as the Armourfast kits are all around the tenner mark on e-bay I thought that was a HaT price hike, ermm no, check out http://armourfast.com/ the REAL price is £7.50, which for 2 vehicles isnt that bad at all.

Relative sizes in 28mm

Since I've got my hitlist item out of the way early on in the month I was thinking about what I'd like to get on with, and I came up with the thought of painting a squad of Germans up for Secrets of the Third Reich. It was only when I came to put the squad on the painting table that I saw just how different various figure companies must have different scaled rulers.

Both of these are descibed on the boxes as 28mm, but looking at that picture, I'm sure you'll agree that they actually look like they were different scales, not that 28mm is a scale, but a size. Using the magic of a steel ruler, I found that the Bolt Action figure on the left is 28mm to the top of the helmet, while the Shock Trooper on the right is about 28 to the centre of his goggles, making him nearer 35mm to the top of his helmet. A huge difference!

Do you think that the makers are doing this deliberatly? To try to tie you into their range and only their range. Its certainly a possibility.

So in short as I prefer the more Sci-Fi looks of the Shock Troopers, looks like I'll be ordering another box of them this month to gimme the MG teams for my squads.

June's here!!

Well despite what I had intended for this month, common sense has broken out in my household, after last months splurges my totals for May are :

Bought 150 (but 10 were already painted so dont count)

Painted 183

Hitlist progress

well see for yourself :)

The might of Carthage arrayed for battle, ok I have a little bit of flocking to do but thats all the little bleeps done and varnished. I think I'll consider that army well and truly complete as thats a 6 foot wall-to-wall frontage, that should be more than enough for a good sized scrap.

Its a bit of a mish-mash of an army with a General, a couple of leaders, 5 units of spears, 3 units of skirmishers, a unit of warband, 3 units of Light horse, 2 of Heavy Cavalry and one unit of Elephants. It has a bit of everything but not enough to use as your main arm. I guess I'll have to play with it and see how it fights.

June is nearly upon us.

Well its time to bite the bullet and decide whats next on my "get it finished" hitlist. Two reasons really, one, my stated intention of getting something done every month and two, I made the mistake of going to my not so local gaming club with Mexcian Dave last night. Why was that a mistake? Well apart from seeing the Battle of the Five Armies game in full swing (fully painted), nice looking game by the way guys! I also happened upon a game of Napoleonicmaster, thats 10mm Napoleonics played with a Warmaster Ancients variant for the uninitiated. It looked to be playing well plus with the extra room that 10mm brings to the table it looked like a Napoleonic game, line were forming, columns looked like coloumns, etc. No offence to 28mm Nappy gamers but it all looks like a glorifed skirmish in that scale, just like Warhammer, its not the frontage that looks wrong but the depth, lines look short and thick etc.

So, in short, if youve been following this blog for any length of time you'll know that I have the attention span of a goldfish and that I suffer (heavily) from the "Ohh, Shiny!!!" syndrome, so theres an order being prepared for some nice 10mm Pendraken Napoleonics. This of course means I have to get a move on and clear a drawer for them arriving. Looking at the mass of drawers and picking what I really want/need to get done, June's project to get finished is my 10mm Punic Warmaster army. Only 4 units from completion (and have been for months) I'll keep you updated with progress, at least until something else shiny grabs my attention.

Oh for Fuzzcakes!!!!!!!!!

Well looks like I'm gonna have to stop sneering at GW fanboys for at least a little while. Why?? Well my darling missus has seen me fiddling about with fantasy figures for the last week or two, so, today while she was in town, went into GW and bought me this!

Its because she's taking her mother off to Spain for a week and wont be back on my birthday, so its an early present. At worst, its two more warbands for SBH, at best, well, I'll read through the rules, probably not with an open mind, and see if theyre playable. And before you ask Dave I will not be investing in any stupid codexes or whatever the fantasy equivelant is called.


Bummer!!!!!!!

Just for Kingsleypark

I've been slathering a lot of paint about this week and some of it landed on the Wargames Factory Orcs

Not very good paint jobs you'll agree, but one of the reasons for posting this piccy is to warn Dave M off from buying these. The main problem I found with them is the arms, they've really tried to make these all things to all men, and it really hasnt worked. Mostly what you end up with are some goofy looking poses, the right arms arent too bad apart from the fact that all and sundry look like theyre about to drop their weapons. What is worse is the left arms, WF have tried to give the option of dual weilding figures, so ALL left arms have an open hand. Whats really wrong with that is that all these arms end up at an angle away from the body, so no sheilds tucked in nice and tight as you would like, and because of the angle the open hand is very visible. So will I be buying any more of these fellas??? Answer is a definite NO!!

Not bad for a quid.

Title says it all really, these little fellas, already painted, for 99p from E-Bay.

Not too badly painted either, some sort of Legion of the Damned kinda thing going on there. Dont quite know what I'm gonna use these in or as, I really, really dont want to start a Not-Eldar army for FWC. But I'm not averse to starting yet another FWC army so above I see a battalion of Grav Tanks with a command vehicle, thats always a good start, add in a giant-stompy-robot (a Not-Titan), some Adler hi-tech infantry, and you have the core of a decent army, and all for under a quid.

Another small Taa-Daa

The first Songs of Blades and Heroes warband is complete!

The leader of this merry band is Morvena Handfull of the house S'awaste whilst drinking some slave blood aboard the Black Ark overheard (wrongly) that Dwarves make excellent pleasure slaves. So she has determined to obtain 2, or maybe even 3 of these wonderful sex toys and has decended on the mainland with her following of Brides of Khaine to find these lesser creatures.

Those familiar with my normal painting "style" will be exclaiming "WHERE'S THE GUNK???", the answer dear follower is that for these little gems from the 80s I decided to actually paint them straight. Dont expect this for every warband as most will be painted in the "Dulux and Roller" style then gunked as that will be quite enough to provide these psycos with moving targets for their blades.

Black Friday indeed!!!!

Friday the 13th lived up to it's reputation for me at least, started well enough by finding a lot on e-bay of 10 Epic Eldar grav tanks (quite nicely painted) sitting with no bids at 0.99p, so I just had to put in a cheeky wee £1 bid. So after lunch I thought I'd check on how I was doing and lo and behold, I'd won them. I then went off to do some painting and later on nearer tea-time I thought I'd just go and give the chappy his quid. Thats when it all started going pear-shaped, my computer quite unexpectedly informed me that I "was not connected to the internet" For those of you who know me thats like being told that my house is an air free zone. I thought about it and blamed the network cable, 2 cables later and it was dawning on me the horrible truth, it wasnt the cables it was the network port in my computer. Ok, I thought, clutching my towel to my chest, dont panic, I had a USB wireless dongle kicking about in my desk drawer, I'll just plug that in. Well try as I might that little bugger just wouldnt work with Windows 7. A few phone calls to the local PC shops later and I was kicking myself for buying the neat little space saver tower as getting a network card that would physically fit into the slimline case wasn't gonna be a quick jaunt down to the shop before they closed. Then like an epiphany my wonderful missus chimes in with the comment "Why not just get a whole new tower?" So instead of sitting at a 2.5 Ghz Dual-CPU machine I find myself waffling away on a 3.2 Ghz Quad-CPU machine, yes its spiffy, yes its a lot faster, but its going to take me weeks to get it the way I want it, i.e. the way the old one was.

So basically, instead of the next whole lot of months purchasing for wargaming, I now have a new 'puter'.

In some ways happy, it is faster and should run my other addiction, World of Warcraft a whole heap smoother, but in other ways sad, I'm skint and will stay that way for a good while.

Finished

Taa-Daa

Again apologies for the fact that space is green, but to be honest I cba to clear the table dig out the black drape just to snap a couple of picces. These are the 2 small pirate fleets for my Italians to chase about, if I ever find a set of rules that I fancy. They wont win any painting prizes, but they are at last ready to rumble.

Progress

Here they are the mighty Italian Stallions, or maybe just my Federal States Europa fleet, finished.

Just 5 pirate ships to do now, quite happy with progress on this.

The start of the new beginning

Ok the title is kinda strange, but its a follow on from a previous post, I intended to start doing what I stated earlier, i.e. get something finished, next month, but I've decided to make a start now.

So what am I forcing myself to get done?

This!

Its a very large Full Thrust spacefleet with a couple of smaller pirate fleets as well, I must have bought this lot at least 2 years ago, its time they were done.

I think the main problem I had finishing them was quite simply the rules, we had planned on using GZG free Full Thrust rules, but they turned out to be clunky in the extreme. They would be fine if you were just using 2 or 3 ships, but as you can see that wasnt quite what we were looking for. So for want of a decent set of rules for large fleets these have been lying in that state for 2 years. Well, no longer, this is the first project that I will complete before I flit onto whatever shiny thing catches my eye next.

Da Orcses

Well just for Kingsleypark, I got a shunt on this morning and finished building my Glade Guards, then proceeded to make a start on the Orcs. Here's a piccie of whats one each of the 8 sprues.

As for size comparisons, as I dont have any GW or Mantic Orcs the best I can do is pop a GW Witch Elf into the piccy.

you have to take into account that she is on a thicker base, closer to the camera and is also sporting quite a "bouffant" hairdo. You'd never convince anyone that these are Greater or Black orcs, but they certainly wouldnt look out of place in a Warhamster army. 

Carronade 2011

Well yesterday myself and Mexican Dave went off to Carronade kindly transported there by Kingsleypark (da uvver Dave), within a minute of entering the building I was parted with some of my spending cash. Well I was intending to buy the Wargames Factory Shock Troopers anyway for SoTR and there they were, a bashed box of them at a mere tenner, sorry couldnt resist it was just one of those "must have" moments.

The show continued to provide me with wallet opening temptations when one trader was unloading his stock of Bolt Action plastic Germans at again another tenner, Mexican Dave's resistance crumbled at that trader and he purchased some Plastic Soldier Russians (20mm) for the princely sum of six quid.

So all in all I was well chuffed that was 43 SoTR troops bought for only £20, but the show was to provide me with more horrors as Cavilier Books had the audacity to be carrying 2 of my other things on my wish list, WF's Amazons and Orcs, well after parting with another £30 for those my wallet was looking a little aenemic. but thankfully Pendraken didnt have the War of the Roses Lancastrians with them so that was my saving grace for the day.

Mexican Dave on the other hand since he'd bought the Russians had the misfortune to stumble onto not only the Heavy Weapons pack but also the 3 pack of T34s, and being the book addict he is he found about a dozen Ospreys as well, so we came back from the show with well depleted wallets, but 2 happy wargamers.

I also found on arriving home that the postie had been kind enough to deliver 2 of my E-bay purchases, the Glade Guard and the Witch Elves, so the Songs of Blades and Heroes project now looks like this.

Since Kingslypark is currently building an Orc and Goblin army for Warhamster I thought I'd treat him to some piccies over the coming weeks of the WF Orcs to help him decide if he wanted to go down the WF route to bulk his boyz up,

as normal with WF all the sprues stack neatly and clip together, but a thought passed through my brain, why is the Amazon box so much bigger????

Oh, Dear!!!! That look like a pretty complicated bunch of building, I think these will be the last batch built, lots and lots of tiny bits.

And lastly a test shot of how well the WF Shock Troops match up with the metal West Wind troops.

Oh taller and beefier, but at first glance the Bolt Action figures look a little smaller and slimmer that works for me, not everyone is a 6ft muscle bound giant the same as not everyone is a 5 foot 6 anoerexic.

and yet more SBH

Just won this lot of PMT bitches on e-bay, another fiver, another warband

with a little paint these should look ok, I hope..............

More Songs of Blades and Heroes

Well, with my usual impatience, I couldnt wait for the Elves and Goblins from e-bay and went rummaging, and no surprises, I did indeed find something that would fit the bill.

A Greeky (or should that be Geeky) themed warband, a poor 2nd son of a Hoplite land owner off to find fame and fortune backed up by some of his fathers Helots. Just an Immortal minis plastic hoplite and 7 of Wargames Factory's  Numidians, not the best figures in the world but they'll do well enough, at least for the time being.

A new beginning

4 months of the year gone already, and while I can happily say that yes, there has been more painted than bought, I dont see much in the way of finished projects. I feel its time to reign in my butterfly mind, its way to easy to get up in the morning and think that ho-hum, what will I do today? Put some paint on a few models from that project, and the next day, do something totally unrelated. Things are getting painted but not ones that get anything new onto the table.

So, from this month on, its going to have to be a case of painting the stuff for a single project, and then if theres any time remaining in the month, paint whatever grabs my attention. In the grand scheme of things I think I'd rather see all these toys of mine on the table badly (unwillingly) painted than have them languishing in drawers awaiting a better paint job.

So the rest of this month is going towards clearing all the figures that are on my painting desk, then next month its pick a project and stick with it.

April has come and gone

Aprils over now and we can look at the buying/painting ratio, as I managed to get another 56 painted the totals for the month are

Painted : 82
Bought : 22
Given away : 68

so thats a nice dent in the pile.

Projects completed this year : 3
Projects started this year : 2 (so far, more on this later)

Ok its later, I just got a copy of both Drums and Shakos and Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games, and I'm quite smitten by these rules, so intend having a go at both. But I'm going to argue the case that since I already have a Sharpe Practice project underway that the Drums and Shakos isnt a new project, simply diverting figures (that I already have) into a new ruleset. The Fantasy one however I'm going to hold my hand up and admit that yes this is a new project as I go shot of all my fantasy figures ages ago. So....

Projects completed this year : 3
Projects started this year : 3

Now decisions, decisions, do I scour the bowels of e-bay looking for individual figures, and paying postage on each one, or do I scour websites looking for individual figures that I think would look good together (and find myself ordering from 3 or 4 places, and paying each of them postage). OR do I just follow a whim and buy the Wargames Factory Amazons (always wanted these anyway) and Wargames Factory Orcs (very Tolkienesque) which I can get from either Maelstrom or Wayland for a touch under £15 a set. 24 figures in each box, multi part (so lots of little differences), the game only needs between 6 and 10 figures a side so theres plenty of figures, AND theyre post-free normally. To me its a no-brainer, I think I'll be buying the plastics. But it does mean that May starts with a hefty bump in the pile as thats 48 bought.

Ah well, no plan survives contact with E-Bay!!!! Instead of Orcs and Amazons I found myself purchasing 24 Moria Goblins (only a fiver!) and then I went looking for whatever (good) guys would make suitable opponents, so I bought a Buy-It-Now of a Glade Guard regiment at £15, so looks like job done for a mere £20. Not only that but thats only 40 bought, plus I managed to get 8 painted today, so it looks like May might be a reduction of the lead pile after all.

Force on Force

Well I read the scenario, and decided to try laying it out on my 5 x 5 table, I noticed that a LOT of hedges were gonna be needed, so I chopped what was left of my doormat into 1" wide strips. I managed to get 20 feet of "hedge" that way and proceeded to lay out the table.

As you can see 20 feet just wasnt enough, I had to resort to using some bushes to fill in what was missing. Looks like another visit to Tescos to get another doormat..

The Scenario is quite simple really, Jerry has to sweep through the white building, the hill behind it and the farmhouse, then back to his own lines (the table edge closest to you). Brits on the other hand have to escort an observer to any one of those places and have him there for 2 turns. Sounds simple enough, until you find out you only have 8 turns, and both sides objectives conflict. There's gonna be tears before bedtime I think.

2 squads done :)

First up some SoTR progress, thats the 1st squad completed

and next up the 1st British Rifle Section for Force on Force

even painted up some heavy support for them.

Force of Force should be a doddle to get going in, as its pretty much based around a platoon on the table for both side. A platoon for pretty much everyone seems to be a command section and 3 10-12 man squads, obviously there will be times when you'll need a vehicle or two but thats about the whole game.

For the opposition, Mexican Dave is gonna be doing them, he went off home happy yesterday with a box of my Valiant Classic German Infantry clutched in his sweaty little mitt. There should be more than enough in that box to knock out a platoon and some supports. Easy paint job, hope he doesnt do his usual and paint on every single little detail, I'd much rather that they got a simple paint job and onto the table quickly rather that a super-detailed paint job and we see them in 6 months time.

Whoot!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally!

Yep now this is one that I've been waiting for for literally years. What on earth is he wittering on about now, well to see what all the excitement is about, just follow this link.

http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/armourfast-2511-hanomag-99019-p-27482.html

Now all we need is some Opel Blitz models.

Oh Dear!!!!!!!!!

Well last night I was chatting to Mexican Dave on the phone, rabbiting on about the tournament we're off to see tomorrow, and well, he just had to do it, he mentioned his new ruleset, Force on Force. You can see his ramblings on this book here : http://weemenunderthebed.blogspot.com/ well I wasn't really listening too hard until he mentioned WW2 scenarios, call me a sucker if you like but WW2 has always and probably always will be my favourite period, probably because I grew up on a diet of WW2 films. Because Dave now has his printed copy I've fallen heir to his PDF copy, so like a fool I started reading it, thats always fatal with me. So I've had a look at the lists and had a rake in my infamous cupboard, and I reckon I have plenty of figures (20mm ish Valiants) to do both a British and a German platoon, not only that but I found some tankys as well, 6 Tigers, 2 Pz IIIs, 2 Shermans, 2 Fireflys and 2 M3 Halftracks. Oh no, the agony, another pile to be painted up, but at least at first glance it looks like nothing to be bought, yeah right like thats ever gonna happen. Prepare to be inundated with piccies of 20mm WW2 goodness.

18th April

Well with all the weekends shenanigans, crushing Lizard armies etc, there wasnt too much progress on the painting front, but for your delectation here's what little did get done.

Thats the first squads BAR gunners done now.

and here's whats still to be done to complete the squad.

The "cunning" master plan is to do just enough to play the Brainwurst scenario from the book, that requires a 12 man squad of GIs on the "good guys" side and a zombie horde on the "bad guys" side. Since I'm strapped for cash until the end of the month, I cant order up the horde until then, and as I expect delivery will be about a week from then, that gives me about 3 weeks to get these guys done, piece of cake!

The only other stuff I got done over the weekend was to build 10 GW Chaos Marines, that had been lurking in a box on my desk for about a year, they take up a lot less room now that theyre built, now theyre shoved into the 28mm odds'n'sods drawer where they'll remain (probably forever).

Saturday 16th April's game

Well I did say that I wasn't gonna crow about this one, but what the hell, Mexican Dave posted about it on his blog, so here goes.

Emperor : BA Commander, I thought i asked you for some piccies of your forces progress on that Lizard planet.

BA Commander : Well Guv, it's like this, we saw them coming out of the jungle, and I thought that I had plenty of time to get yer piccies, so I nipped out of the Land Raider for a quick fag. By the time I got back all I could see was a few stragglers running back into the jungle, and a hell of a lot of roasted meat on the battlefield. Honest Guv, I was only gone for a minute.

Well, comedy aside that had to be the shortest FWC game in history, the Whirlwinds more than paid for their inclusion in the force, dropping rockets over large chunks of the table, either suppressing of just plain killing lots of Dinos, that and the Land Raiders mopping up anything that was still standing just plain put a stop to any forward movement on Dave's part. But the final straw was the dropship landing on Dave's suppressed and wounded CO (killing him) and the disgorging Assault troopers killing everything in range, left a huge hole in the centre of the Dino lines. At the start of turn 3 Dave had to do a command roll to keep fighting (taken on one of his HQs obviously) at -2, predictably he failed. Game over, Marine casualties are reported to be light.

More SoTR progress

Well yesterday both Sarge and the Elltee made it through the heavily contaminated painting zone, despite being ambushed at various times by files, scalpels and paintbrushes to report themselves ready for action.

Dave asked

Dave M asked, "Who is the dude in the background?"

its one of these being built

and yes it is a bit of a monster 4" tall and weighs about 0.7 of a Kg

SoTR project starts

Well today I not only completed assembly of my current crop of Secrets off the Third Riech but I managed to get one painted, my first 28mm figure in a long long time. Here she is, Liberty, or more affectionatly known on the SoTR forums as just plain Libby.

Just off the brush

Gunked, flesh and white re-touched

Basing done, completed.