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.

9th April

Well hows the painting going?

So far this month its

Bought 26, well 4 were a present so they dont actually count so 22

Painted 26 and a right eclectic mix at that 21 Roman Auxillia, an Elf Cruiser, 3 Battletech Mechs and my Blood Angel's CO pimped.

So all in all this month I'm already "in profit" with regard to the lead mountain, just as well really as I've just started building the 4 Hordes figures, and I'll say this about them, they are a bloody nightmare to build.Why of why didnt I go for Warmachine where I could have gotten injection plastic Warjacks, I mean come on 17 parts for 1 figure is really just taking the piss, but I'll keep at it and they will be built, and a coat of paint slapped on them. Secrets of the Third Riech arrived this morning as well, I think I'll use these as a relief break from doing the Hordes figures, pretty much 3 parts to each figure, body, head, and gun. Nice and straightforward, also the paint job is straightforward as well, I started on the Skorne Warlock, black undercoat, Mechrite red over all the armour, 3 more coats of Blood red, some flesh, now I'm picking out all the armour edges in gold, and believe me, there are a  LOT of edges. I think its not how many of these I can get done in a day its more how many days to get 1 done in. So I'm quite looking forward to a nice simple US army paint job.

Projects are like buses

Yep, you wait for 3 months for one and two come along at once. What am I wittering on about? Well, last night me and Mexican Dave paid a visit to Highlander Games our LFGS, and came back hooked on one of the games thats played there, so a long witter cut short, me missus bought me this today.

and not only that but she also bought me this.

Now all I have to do is figgur out how all the bitties fit together, the mad elephant looking dude comes in no less that 17 separate pieces. These are nice BIG figures btw, those halberd guys are about 90mm to the top of the banners.

"Pimp ma Ride!!"

The Blood Angel CO, depressed at the shabbiness of his entire force, called on his battle brothers and said unto them "Pimp ma ride!"

and lo, in the fullness of time, his ride was indeed pimped.

And they shall know no fear!

So what have I been up to, well painting up a couple of command units for the Empra's finest

Mexican Dave's challenged me to a 5000pt scrap using FWC rules and his newly finished Dino Riders. Since theyre (to me at least) an unknown quantity, I thought I'd better field my hardest army, da Space Marines. The big downside of these guys should be quite apparent, you just never seem to get enough of them. So what have I included?

CO
3 HQs
2 FAOs
3 Land Speeders (the eyes and ears of the HQs)
6 Whirlwinds (you can never have too much arty dropping)
9 Land Raiders (tanky goodness)
6 Devastators (on foot, but with a 100cm range, they dont need to move much)
6 Tacticals
6 Rhinos (the Tacticals taxis)
6 Assault Marines
1 Dropship (the Assault guys taxi)
1 Walker (after all you really cant play Sci-Fi without some stompy robot goodness)

Comments on this troop mix welcome.

Another Month, Another Project

Yep as I stated in yesterday's post, I have today taken the plunge into Weird War 2, now 28mm is a scale that I normally abhor, but this seems like my kinda game. Its a skirmishy kinda game with the turn not being the Evil Empire's "I'm gonna move all my guys, then I'm gonna shoot with all my guys, then I'm gonna assault with all my guys" it's a much more reasonable alternate unit activation type game. Anyone familiar with Stargrunt 2 will be comforable with this, it's a system that I like as it forces you to actually think a bit, do I use this unit now, or do I wait and see what he's gonna do with his unit right in front of it?

What I bought just to get started was this

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Secrets-of-the-Third-Reich/Wayland-SOTR-Bundles/US-Armoured-Infantry-Starter-Pack/prod_7476.html

Wayland games have put together bundles of a decent starter pack, a character model and a rulebook, ok Wayland charge postage whereas the likes of Maelstrom dont, I did check and even with the postage I'd have been short of the £3.60 character model If I'd gone anywhere else. So if this is interesting you, do check out Waylands bundles.