vrijdag 28 januari 2011

88th New York (2nd Irish Brigade)

And to follow up on my earlier ramblings from today (does it show I have time off from work?) my very first completed, hard plastic, historical regiment: the 88th New York, the second regiment of the infamous Irish Brigade

Come join the Irish Brigade m`boys, come join the Irish Brigade.
You`ve seen those Southerners tremble, when they met with the Irish Brigade.


First, I must admit when i started the road to hard plastic historicals, i was very sceptical, and that was mainly for the following three reasons:

1. Ieuw, plastic models, that never can look as varied as metals
2. Individual bases all the way
3. Paper banners? I paint my banner myself thank you...

1. Ieuw, plastic models, that never can look as varied as metals



Well, seeing is believing the saying goes. Now one must bear with me, I`m from the Games Workshop generation where you either have the very old plastics which, well, look dull in their single cast, single pose line up. Great for bulking, but to many in a unit and the unit looks bareuh. Then came the GW `model kits` which trainloads of little stuff and hours of assembly and cleaning required. One had to have a degree in architecture to be able to build them (Rhino track treads anyone?) and a world championship title in dominoes for getting them to line up nicely (reform in battle? I`ll pass thank you very much).
When I opened the box (in this case, Perry Miniatures ACW Infantry) I saw that there was not much puzzling to do, yet the models still had a variety of poses.
Point one of my reservations... withdrawn

2. Individual bases all the way



Once more, the GW background, where you sometimes loose a single model or such, rarely half a regiment in one single volley or melee round (not talking break tests or multiple unit melee, actual dead guys in a 1vs1 unit battle). So I would have no need for those green bases that come with about each and every range of plastics out there, I was planning on basing each and every model on a 2by2 cm base. Then I started playing along in some historical battles and read some rulebooks... and models tend to die easilier and with more together then in your average fantasy game.
Out came those green things then, which cater for, staying with my 2x2 base frontage intention, anywhere between 1 and 5 models. I mixed and matched the bases along (not using the 5 wide though) so I can either form into march column or like on the picture, a firing line.
Reservation two went down the gutter that way...

3. Paper banners? I paint my banner myself thank you...



As could be seen in the past halfyear with my Wood Elves, I draw my banner designs on paper in a fine pencil, then colour it in with paint. That was indeed the idea as well for the historicals... till I researched the flags. I admit, that would be above my talent to paint them freehand, so I went searching the internet and found two excellent providers, Battleflag and Flags of War. Both around the same price, both looked great, so for the Irish Brigade I ordered the well, Irish Brigade sheeth from the latter. It arrived today (and as the last models of the unit where painted this morning, I just needed to cut the flags out and attach them to the bannerpoles) and I must say I really like the quality and look of the unit flags.
It is fine to draw freehand banners for fantasy, but my limited talent can`t cope with the historical detailed flags... and reservation three happily went out the window.


Now, of to paint the first regiment of my ECW Parliament army...

Comming of Age...

It has happened. The circle is complete. I`m getting old and grumpy...

Many more of those statements can be used if one looks at the current (and, from my younger point of view) and past `life as a wargamer`.

I bought my first Osprey books on Napoleonics yesterday.

Now this might sound strange to people, and it is not intended to be any kind of insult at all, but the tale of how a young gamer slowly turned from a kid with a Warhammer army to an old grognard googling facings on British regiments...

More then 15 years ago, I rather accidentally rolled into the whole wargamer hobby. Mind you, that was an era where the internet was a stuff of legends, so together with 4 friends we played MB`s Heroquest on one of those guys attic. Of course, after blasting through the adventures time and again as you started to know the maps by heart, and the totally inbalanced homemade scenarios, dabbling in a hack and slash versions of AD&D (hey, we where like 14 - 15 years old back then) where we for some reason (well, the DM just liked the place) always ended up after session 1 in Ravenloft, we visited the local game store, The Lonely Mountain, for more material.
There we found a box with models that looked like the Heroquest ones... little did we know we bought a box of Warhammer and the path to a hobby was opened.
Al sorts of awfully inbalanced armylists where thrown against each other, models barely worth the name painting (undercoat? varnish? what are those terms?) and we struggled in the Old World for a couple of years.



Then the life of partying started, and in the end I was about the only one still really into the hobby... and found myself into the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, a club I`m now a member from for over a decennia. I blame them! I have whole numbers of painted armies, the others have wife and kids... Hmmm, on second thought, seems I came of easy and cheap then. Okay, I don`t blame them to hard then.

Of course, the warhammer tradition was carried on, but now into a club environment. More opponents, the occasional tournament, the whole heap a cheap. But ever so slowly the transference had been started. Soon, the first Irish models for the Dark Ages where amongst my models. They where by Amazon Miniatures, a dozen kerns, and I still have them, actually, they are on the `to repaint` list very soonish.

Some more years went by, and I started to break off more and more from the whole GW scene, but didn`t take the path to historicals just yet. No, I went for my great love, spaceship gaming. A niche rarely seen on a club, it runned for years week in week out at TSA, even `scoring` us a place in some magazine around 2005 - 2006 when we where full time into A Call to Arms by Mongoose Publishing.



And so it kept on evolving slowly and steadily. Even though adventures in time and space continued, I did start to participate in the yearly TSA weekend dedicated to a large battle of the American Civil War... and darn, I loved that. I always have had a fondness for the period, due to the `De Blauwbloezen` (rougly translated as `The Blueshirts`) stripbooks when I was a little padawan for the most part.



And then it took a rollercoaster ride... plastic historical boxes for no money at all. Victrix, Perry Miniatures, Warlord Games... you know the drill. We had dabbled a bit in historics by then with a year long Flames of War campaign, as that was now readily available, but it died down after the campaign and armies where sold. We returned to the spaceship games, mainstay of the little clique we formed at TSA infamously known as `The Far Side of the Galaxy` (due to our regular table being placed on the far side of the compound and having galaxy mats on them... nothing fancy actually behind the fancy name).
I also learned some valuable insights in the whole plastic scene compared to some of my prejudices, but that`s for another rambling.

I bought a box of Perry ACW infantry cheaply of ebay about two years ago, and they just, well, lingered around. They first reappeared last year with the Lead painter`s league round 5 where the theme was `zombies and opponents`. Don`t ask, though it did for some obscure reason win me the round, as can be seen here, against another clubmate of mine, Creepy Corridor Andy.
And the rest went back on the leadpile.



Until... something started to change this past Crisis show. We decided on going to play a campaign for 6mm science fiction with the Future War Commander rules, but in the back of my mind was this nagging little voice, repeating `your grown up, buy historics ya fool`. I ignored it. For like a month, then placed an order for the massive ECW army deal of Warlord Games, due to some end of year promotion and all, and the Parliament army was planned out.
I found the Perry plastics again during a clean up... the long planned Irish Brigade sprang back to life.
I bought 6mm ACW forces for both sides from Baccus about a year ago to try and lear my gaming mates Johnny Reb 3 to get more players for the ACW weekend. They are being dug up as we speak in order to get a coat of paint.
My Dark Age Irish, though completed for Warmaster Historical, are being assembled and inventarised even as you read this. An army for both the Age of Arthur AND the about 100 year later Shieldwall. My surname is Murrath, which apparently is derived from Murchad, which comes from Mael el Muchada... yeah, that guy that got his ass handed over in the Battle of Clontarf by Brian Boru. Still, maybe I should check if I ain`t a inheritor of the back then Kingdom of Leinster...

And now I bought those Osprey`s. I always had a personal admiration for 3 commanders over all of history, namely the Duke of Wellington, though Napoleonics didn`t intrest me as I looked up to painting all those correct facings and all, Bernard Law Montgomery (I personally really loved his Ardennes tactic, but I`m rather defensive in my playstyle so I`m prolly leaning more towards him then to say, Rommel or Patton in `moving my toys`) and Ulysses S. Grant.

It has happened... I`ve evolved from a young guy with a fancyful fantasy army towards an old geezer researching his forces general uniform colours before painting them...

maandag 24 januari 2011

Jurassic Parc Unleashed!

I finally finished my second project for 2011, namely an `alien invader` army for our Future War Commander campaign. The force, Lizard Riders, have been produced by Micro World Games and are from their range with the same name.



I personally like the flavor of the army. Saurians riding gun-toting dinosaurs, how cool is that to put onto the field of battle. Now rulewise, they are everything but a strong force, their `heavy tank`, the T-Rex netting 225 points yet only comming with a 5+ save and not an immens amount of firepower. HOWEVER, it IS a T-rex, you don`t want that bugger amidst your infantry with his Stubborn rule and high melee attack value, it`ll, well, eat them.



The sculpts themselves are for the dinosaurs pretty nice, great detailing on musculature and teeth and claws. My personal favourites on that part are the Para-unpronouncable-saurus`s with either the lance or missile launcher.



The Stegadons and the Ceratops are `good`, not the most awe-inspiring models but great looking things, and my vaerage painting skills and lousy camera handling don`t do them credit. Same goes for the Raptor riders, but they suffer from the woe below...




... and that is the basic infantry. Okay, faces on 6mm models, not the easiest of things in the world, but these guys seem to have some sort of deathheads skull (you know, like on the Jolly Roger flag) / squid like face (like Dr Zoidberg from Futurama), perhaps not the best choice for saurian like infantry. A bit more of a `pointed forward` snout like the Kraytonians from Dark Realms would have done a better job in my opinion to blend them into the range, but bottomline, a great line of models and very good value for money!

Oh, and the artillery and airplane saurusses, they are conversions, the post is somewhere in the archives of this little blog, but they are basically 10mm Magister Militum dino`s mixed with Flames of War 15mm weaponry...


So, off now to the next army to try and complete. I think that is going to be my EuroFed army from Brigade, as they are closest to being all done. To quote Warehouse 13 on my residing lead mountain... `Snag it, bag it, tag it`

zaterdag 22 januari 2011

Project Lame-Ass 7: Time for a Classic

Quite a lot of little different things painted the past periodical, but the lead of the show has to be the Gundam mobile suit RX-78-2 and FA-78-1, namely the very first Gundam to ever grace our screens a couple decennia ago, and it`s green `full armour` variant. Models are from the 1/400 scale series by Bandai, and will be the `command models` for my FWC Gundam force.




They are part of the whole batch finished, all in total would amount to



which as you can see is still a splitch and splatch of models from all over the place, in all sorts of scales, and a heap of ranges and games. Though it keeps me motivated to paint, it is comming to a time I should consider doing some `aimed painting`, more then one or two models of a range at a time. Not for getting things finished mind you, but I`m forgetting exactly which colours I used on some models hehehe

Saim Han Scorpions

Second this week, a few more epic Eldar troops received a tat of colour. I`m slowly working through all these models in order to get an idea what my army will consist of, and then throw the left overs out in some trade for other models, but as a sideline project this isn`t going very fast. No worries on that part, time, my friend eternal, is on my side (sometimes)



Achilles

Not only scifi this week though, as I`m working up my world war 2 forces for 2012 as well slowy but steadily with the latest addition to my `Late War` british. A squad of 5 Achilles tank destroyers (american tanks with british cannons) reinforces the ranks to push the Hunn out of Europe hopefully.



Come Join the Irish Brigade...

One of those long term projects was painting an ACW regiment for the yearly event held at TSA, more info here, which is a huge, and impressive, battle in herself. Howver, it has been moved from may to march, which means it is highly doubtful the regiment will be ready by then. Never hurts though, so I might be painting a couple more blue coats the comming days at the front of the immense painting row just for that.



Regimento Steylardo

Named after a player in our group who has a fondness of using Germans with SMG`s in his Pulp games, the Society responds with her own SMG section to lay a counter fire spread of bullets.



And that`s not all!!!

As I finished a whole plate of buildings of the big project for 6mm scenery as well... needless to say, the social life and night rest suffered badly :)




So, into the horizon we ride as I have a whole week of holidays comming up now (woot woot, and especcially, finaly). Lots of models will be worked on HOPEFULLY so that I can send in some fresh forces in our campaign, on top off a whole batch of scenery to bring our tally at the club to the 100 region... which me luck and till the next time I can get my lame ass off the chair ;)

But that also means that this was the last of the Lame-Ass series. i`m underway now in various projects and to be quite honest, I didn`t get as much joy out of writing these (mind you, the writing, not the motivating to paint) as with the wood elf series half a year ago. Back to a more infrequent yet more `I feel like I want to write about that` style of tackling my Bloggie...

dinsdag 18 januari 2011

To Bask in Glory, or to Bend your Head in Shame

This post is a bit of a result of a discussion I had with some buddies in my online community `friends group`. You know, people you tend to bump into on all the forums all over the Net, like Tabletop News, Lead Adventure, The Miniatures Page, SCN, and my local club TSA to name but a few.

It came about when we we`re talking about ordering online, especcially in a wargames backwater country like Belgium, where availibility of manufacturers and ranges is to cry for. IF we are lucky enough to have a store nearby, we can be VERY glad if they have something else then Games Workshop or Flames of War...

Being one of the `pioneers` in the online ordering field in my group (heck, after let`s say the almost 10 years that eBay and online shopping has nested in decently, most still ask me to order for them as you get to know the inn`s and out`s, learn to `virtually` know people and the likes) and the recent development at Wargames Factory (if you haven`t heard, it`s all over the internet at the moment so i`m not recounting the tale here) someone uttered an idea to praise and shame your online `connections` a bit. It`ll probably don`t make a rats ass difference, but it might steer people to order with peeps you like, or for them to do so at own risk with those you personally have issues with...


Those that I Praise my Words for




1. Maelstrom Games: Standard 5% - 10% discounts on the RRP, regular extra 12.5% - 17.5% discount voucher actions, a money back system that adds an extra 1% of your order value in a basket to be used later on, AND free shipping... me like this fella a lot, and have been ordering from him for a couple of years now, never with any problems.

2. Caliver Books. I read a lot. Finding books in english on obscure miliatry subjects ain`t that easy in a dutch / french languaged country. David recently provides me with lecture ;)

3. DVD.co.uk: the current SciFi feeding on television overhere is: Battlestar Galactica season 3, Atlantis season 4, and Enterprise season 3. Nothing more recent. So a uk based, low shipping rate is the salvation for me personally. Very speedy shipping times. Then again, i`m starting to suspect them to already have my parcel ready with the new releases before I even order, forsight et all hehehe. And they have all the classic Who in the range.

Bow thy Head in Shame



1. Black Tree Designs! And I`m not the only one here, in the States people are even considering mass filing lawsuits against them it seems. Ordered a BIG Saracen order back in may, received a first batch of about 10% of the order in august... and then so far zippo. Nil replies, nil merchandise, nil chance to recuperate money after so long.

2. Robert The Black. Small scale in house Star Trek model builder on SCN. Placed an order in september, went dead on the Net afterwards due to personal issues and not being able to cope with his own success. Still has my benefit of the doubt.

3. Big Pat. States based new owner of most of the Future Legend molds, he asked me in january last year for my FL Norway and Steamrunner, so he could refresh the molds. Woudl be compensated with a few extra casts, which I said didn`t matter that much. Still, one year one and nothing came back, before august I had 3 replies he pc went broke and 4 that he would `go to the post office and sent the tracking number onwards`. Of course, this didn`t happen, and after august not even replies came back...

And on the lines at current is Wargames Factory. I don`t know the inn`s and out`s, nor is it my business, but I did place the large War of Spanish Succession preorder in november, and hope to see something of it one day...


Ciao Ciao for now...

dinsdag 11 januari 2011

Project Lame-Ass 6: 6mm scenery galore

Nothing but scenery, scenery and more scenery this week...

With the campaign entering in march to `city and village fight modus`, heaps of buildings are needed to fill 3/4th of a 12 by 4 feet table.

Now I have here around 450 houses and pieces of various manufacturers that need to be painted for that, with a goal to have 200 done at least by March, and 350 for a multiplayer at the TSA open door `Battlefield Commissions` in May... so the race is one (and unfortunatly, my own armies will get to bear the blunt of that by severe lack of paint time for them). Now I HOPE I can `expat` about 100 - 150 of them to the other players of my group, but I fear most of the work will tumble upon my shoulders. Adieu non-existant social life ;)

So here they are, the first two batches of painted scenery:




Now, I admit, i will be using every trick of `camouflage painting` on them, as not to invest years of time into a project with a deadline in two months, so it`s all basic colours + either an ink wash or a single drybrush and some `mono color` detailing.
One trick I`m using is painting them mostly in Terracota (Vallejo Game Color range) undercoats, that way where the grey etc of walls shows a bit of the undercoat through, you get the effect of plastered walls over red bricks. Handy and allows me to use up colors I barely use anyways

Ciao Ciao, I`m off to paint more houses *urgh*

zaterdag 8 januari 2011

FWC Battle report: Andrayadans vs... Gundams o_O !?!

So, we started a new year of gaming, and as such I thought it an opportune moment to make a battle report about the first battle of the year. Send a textie to my long time buddy / personal driver / arch nemesis to hear if he wanted to participate, and when he said yes, I needed to find something special. Enter my beloved Gundams, it`s about time they paid of their airmiles with a decent performance on the battlefield.

+++ Incomming Message +++
+++ Security Clearance: ST-8 Ultraviolet +++
+++ Subject: XMFG-10-Dieci +++

This is Celestial Being *stop* Operation Meteor is a go *stop* We repeat: Operation Meteor is a go *stop*
All systems green *stop* Dynames device launched *stop*
Please Confirm *stop* Celestial Being out *stop*

+++ Message ends +++


Okay, so that fluff isn`t completely correct as it mixes and matches parts from 3 different Gundam anime series, but my game friends aren`t the lovers of anime like I am so they won`t know ;)

The scene was set as such for a 1500 points battle, me taking my list from the Cav Open Market list, the enemy drawing from his Andrayada forces. Being part of the campaign, the battle took place `somewhere in Africa` but that`s completely irrelevant for the non-campaign players heehe. The campaign itself can be found here for those intrested.
The table was 48 on 48 inches (aka, 4 tiles of TSS terrain tiles), with various kinds of scenery.



So up to the army lists. Guy, my opponent (as in Guy Ritchie type of Guy, not that guy type of guy) had 1350 points at his disposal with his advanced tech and selected a CO and HQ to give the orders, 6 Warrior units, 4 of the heavily armoured Vanguards, 2 Scout Recce warriors and 6 Voran walkers. A Light Orbital Bombardment stood also at his command, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.



The Gundams faced them off with a CO and HQ, supported by 4 Regular infantry, 2 Raider IFV vehicles, a Dragoon tank (all models from the Plasmablast Progenitors), a Desert Zaku (Kahn) and Sniper Gouf (Warden) 1/400 Bandai models, and the stars of the line up, the Endless Waltz versions of HeavyArms and Sandrock (both 1/300 scale Bandai). HeavyArms was the Ogre from the list, Sandrock an Emperor.



The Gundams lost the roll to deploy first, but took the win in the roll for who would have turn 1. My breakpoint was 7 (15 `counting` units as massives count double) vs 6 for the Andrayadans.

And so battle commenced...



Turn 1

The Gundam CO took the first order for his account, moving the assault group of Sandrock, the IFV`s and the Infantry forward one time... and then blundering causing not only the turn to end, but also to saddle him up with a -2 CV for the next turn... way to start a battle.

The Andrayadans on their part started almost as bad, as the HQ failed to command the infantry, so they didn`t advance, as would the CO as he tried to take over. Luckily, the CO had already rolled a command bonus for the other part of the force as the robots advanced and took possession of some of the large buildings in front of them.

Turn 2

The HQ of the Gundams then moves HeavyArms forward while the Desert Zaku opens fire, but without success against the vanguard in the building. The CO then orders some infantry in the buildings as well, but one of the Regulars becomes suppressed by opportunity fire. Sandrock advances alone towards enemy lines, but then the CO blunders again and forces Sandrock to move towards the enemy lines. Not a bad blunder, `cause this would let me charge Sandrock in on Initiative next turn.



The Andrayadan Recce boosts both their commanders CV value, but then it starts to go wrong big time, as the HQ manages to order one move before failing, and the CO fails when trying to bring in the Bombardment centered on Sandrock. This would become a serious running problem for the Andrayada in the battle as you`ll see later on, and we decided afterwards it was due to them still running on MS-DOS instead of Windows 7.

Turn 3

Enter Sandrock! Charging on Initiative, the huge Gundam lunges into the Vanguard on the building in fornt of him, unhindered by defensive fire, and flushes the elite warriors out and back to the next building. In the meantime, the Sniper Gouf suppresses a Warrior unit. Smart Missiles crash against the Dragoon tank, but fail to kill or even supress the machine, and it`s return fire suppresses one of the Voran walkers, which would then be finished of by a volley from HeavyArms.
Two infantry stands of the Andrayadans are then finished off by the Dragoon and HeavyArms, as the HQ managed to keep giving orders before failing when needing a 4...
The CO just pulls his flank a bit back including Sandrock to organise the line for the next strike.



The Andrayada in return had a couple of units less to command due to suppressions and casualties, and started with target painting the Sniper Gouf. And that was it, as both the HQ and the CO botch their first order attempts...



Turn 4

Feeling I could let the Andrayada reach their breakpoint, I decided to let the push come from the other side this round, so my rusty enemies would be caught between two huge Gundams that would work their way towards each other, clearing a building at a time.
Sandrock did nothing except powering his shield back up, as the Gouf becomes suppressed by opportunity fire from Vanguards.
The Zaku was then destroyed by the Smart Missiles from the Voran, but this took that weapon out of sight and HeavyArms moved in line of sight to take out the war machine. The first volley suppressed it, the second finished it off, leaving the biggest treat to my shields, the unsavable smart missiles, a memory in the past. The Dragoon tank rolled forward a bit and suppressed, then finished, a Warrior unit.
On the other flank, combined fire from the Regular squads took out a Vanguard unit, while an IFV managed to gun down a unit of Scouts.
The Andrayadans where seriously starting to run out of units, and more importantly, out of CV value.



But the robotic monstrosities had one more ace in their sleeve... the Light Orbital Bombardment came through and smashed into the middle of the bunched up infantry in the centre. Though it did supress the Andrayadan scouts nearby as well, it ravaged in the Gundam lines, supressing the HQ, a Regulars unit and an IFV, and destroying the Zaku and another Regulars unit.
Unfortunatly for the Andrayadans, they can`t follow up on the success as yet another command roll, by the CO, is failed and ends their turn.



In practice, and in hindsight, this was where the battle ended as the Andrayadans had played their last hand and failed to capitulate on the success due to poor command rolls... but respect to my opponent, he wouldn`t just yield yet, as `un Fall Backable` infantry in Hard cover is hard to shift, and me just refusing to hide behind buildings and let the huge machines do the job, but keeping up with peppering -useless- shots at the enemy in the flats.

Turn 5

Both HeavyArms and the Dragoon advance a little to draw new firing lines, and in doing so suppress the Andrayadan scouts. Samdrock steadily advances back to a forward position in order to launch a new attack later on...



The Andrayadan turn was even shorter though. A Vanguard unit manages to suppress an IFV on initiative fire... and that was it as once again the CO botches the roll. Like I said in the beginning, this would be a running problem for my opponent, who if lucky managed to even give a single order. Shoudl learn him to use loaded dice on 6 muahahaha.

Turn 6

A short turn for me, as I failed some command rolls for once very soon in the ordering. A Regular unit was killed by opportunity fire, while the Dragoon suppressed a Warrior unit, and that was it for me. The Andrayadans could make this a hurt turn, as I`m starting to near my break point as well now, and unlike the metalic beast on the other side, I do need to test and one flunk would mean my force running of the battlefield. I just must see not to loose a single unit anymore now...



... which won`t happen as the Andrayada software isn`t patched up in a long time. Though they manage to designate the Dragoon, not one shot even manages to hit, and then... they fail all command rolls again. I almost started to feel sorry for Guy... almost... die Nemesis die!!!! Mwuahahahahaha *kuch* right... on to:

Turn 7: The End is Near

The turn starts with Sandrock thundering into the Vanguards, and kills them off by causing double or more hits. On the other flank, the Dragoon and HeavyArms use initiative to charge the Scouts, and needless to be said, made very, very short work of them...



The Andrayadan CO did the only thing he could, and gave the `boot down` order to the few remaining troops still standing. The battle was over and Operation Meteor a success.



Concluding this, I was very lucky that Guy couldn`t manage to pass a lot of CV tests, especcially with the shaky start of my force with two blunders in a row. I feared to loose at least one of the huge Gundams to enemy fire, the Massive trait making them easier to hit, while coping with the problems of flushing out the infantry in the buildings.
In the end though, more due to his lack of luck then my excessive luck the Gundams carried home the battle, and for more `pure intimidation` factor then cost / efficiency I nominate Sandrock as `hero of the battle` as his charges shattered the flank twice and causing the Andrayadans to stay put in the buildings and unable to maneuvre anywhere, as falling out of the buildings to avoid the charge would leave them open to the volleys of HeavyArms...



That`s it for the first battle of the year, ciao ciao all and till the next time!

woensdag 5 januari 2011

Project Lame-Ass 5: Transformation of Khadon

A fresh batch got completed for `varnish row` tonight, including some larger then 6mm scale models.




Transformation of Khadon




The first thing painted this week was a nice beastie to represent the effects of the Amber lore spell for my Wood Elf mages. In the old -my- days, this spell just changed the stats of the character et c`est tout, but now it allows the model to transform into about half of the Imperial Zoo. Not that I would bother buying a heap of big beasties, as it is a welcome change in paint schedules, but I do mind hiring a van just to transport a spell effect :-)
So I went scouring the net and found a Trictalion from Enigma Miniatures 30mm range, a horned, scaled, 6 eyed monster that fits on a 40by40 monster base... good enough for me!

Little space elves



Secondly this week... more epic Eldar for use in my Eldritch Caste force. Still continuing in the Saim han colourscheme, their ranks are bolstered by 4 more stands of Guardians, 2 large cannons and 2 stands of Exarchs.

Through Normandy and Beyond



Next up, for the 6mm ww2 campagne `that might happen next year` are a set of british tank destroyers by GHQ, namely 5 (aka, the contents of a blister pack) Challenger`s, tank destroyers build on the chassis of the delightful Cromwell tank (not the greatest tank ever made, but in my eyes one of the most `sexy` lined ones though).

The SAC gains a new toy



Finally this week, the Lince (a copy of the british Dingo) Armoured Car for the Society`s heroes. The model, a 28mm resin by Warlord Games, is armed with a small front mounted gun, so will become a `proxy` for one of the AC designs in Where Heroes Dare! Can`t expect the noble adventurers to cross the Sahara on foot now can we.


That is it for this batch. Next time, I have actually no idea what it is going to contain, I have two days off tomorrow and the day after, so it will see a lot of painting time going on. One thing is for certain, as I`m currently watching Gundam 00 there will be mobile suits in the lot for sure ehehe.

Ciao Ciao

zaterdag 1 januari 2011

Project Lame-Ass 4: HAPPY NEW YEAR... and some epic Eldar

First of all, let me wish you all a happy new year now that the Stuka`s have quit bombing lil` ol` Merxem city. Ow wait, that was just an overabundance of fireworks...
May all your dice roll true, your games bring joy and your models get painted!



Which brings us nicely to the small batch I painted this week (well, small mostly in scale).

I went all `epic Eldar` for a part, to flunk out my Eldritch caste forces in FWC a bit. Two heavy tank destroyers where added to the ranks, together with an extra commander, 3 Heavy jetbikes, some Guardians and a few field artillery models. A very `reddish` week, with a following batch now on painting row to round out some more choices.



For the obligatory scenery pieces, it was a simple two strips of razor wire, i believe they are Irregular, but don`t take my word for that, they`ve been lying around from some BnB for years.

Lastly where the final three stands of Lizard Rider infantry, the next army I`m trying to `round out`.

Last mail order went out half an hour ago (a 17.5 extra discount for Maelstrom was something I couldn`t let pass for some paint stockage but also some Warlord plastic britons and some various stuff) and that really was the last one apart for rulebooks, paints, that kind of `needs`.

And now, I`m off for an extra glass of bubbly goodness, and to wish that russian lass living downstairs a happy new year ;-)