May Painting Progress

Happy Sunday everybody. It's been a while since I posted but I'm happy to report further progress on the Sudan project. It'll be very tight to get everything done, but I'm comfortable I can put a game without everything: some bits are just icing (or even the cherry on top). 

First up, a bunch more Sudanese Bazingers. This is the Perry command pack. Painted as before - two different colours on the robes, and a fairly motley collection of other equipment. 

Here they are with the rest painted during AHPC V. A bit command-heavy, but a decent sized unit for me. 

I've also done up some casualty/shock markers, using the ubiquitous dice frames. I wanted to do more but have run out of frames, so need a restock. I've a couple of Britsh ones on the paint table now. 

Two are actually converted as the Perry's Sudan range only has Beja tribesman casualties, simple head swaps to replace the distinctive Beja hairdo. You may see that the ones falling in action at the back also have some bullet impacts on the base to add to the dramatic effect - using Curt's simple but effective method.

That's most of the minis I want to get done, but I'm well behind on the terrain. Happily it's a bank holiday weekend here, an opportunity to make some progress, starting with smashing up some rather large bits of cork bark that I picked up. For those of you wondering about the SCW project that I had been making decent progress on, that's still on ice. I've a small batch mostly finished that I may well wrap up if the fancy takes me, but the bulk of it is on hold until next month. 

Dear Santa...

Well it is that time of year again, apparently! The Secret Santa was so successful I raced to throw my lot in again. I have my target and hope to get shopping soon.

No doubt my Santa will find clues for me here, but here are some ideas based on my current interests:

-28mm SCW
I've just placed a reasonable order, but some Empress Republican Militia could also come in useful.

-15mm WWII
I've got a US and German platoon and a reasonable terrain collection now. Support options, particularly armour would be welcome. For the US I've already got a Greyhound and Sherman Jumbo. My Germans have a Hetzer, a Sdkfz250/1(0) and a 3.7cm Flak. Other 15mm vehicles or guns from the Chain of Command support lists, perhaps.

-28mm WWII
Yes two scales syndrome. I've a load of Artizan Designs and am loitering at 'half platoons' for both British Commandos and Greatcoated Germans. SWW157, SWW158, SWW152, SWW133, SWW023, SWW079, SWW071 are all be useful to start rounding either force out.
Alternatively, I've a budding desert war collection. I have a Perry Afrikakorps and a Sdfkz222, so either other Perry supports from the Chain of Command list or a Desert Rats plastic box would build it up nicely.

-28mm Sudan
There are always packs to add the the collection, though I've come to a point where I don't expect it will be a focus over the coming months. Still, Perry SB1, SB20, SB41, SB47, SA12 and SA14 are all on my 'I'll pick these up one day' list.

-28mm Pulp
I do fancy pushing the old Pulp project into Mythos games, for which I could do with some cultists or gribblies from Artizan, Pulp Figures, RAFM or Modiphius.

Well, hopefully that's enough to get Santa started!

In other news, a first for me this week, converting 15mm WWII. Fiddly work, but really just a bit of wire, green stuff and clump foliage to make a couple of pioneer teams with a flamethrower to give my US something to worry about.

Fun with Plastic Mahdists

I don't normally post WIPs, but was quite pleased by a recent afternoon spent hacking up the plastic Perry Mahdists. They're not quite finished and need some green stuff before priming, so are unlikely to roll off the painting queue for a couple of months.

First up, a chap manfully hurling his spear and one tweaked To be drawing his sword on the charge. The latter was damned fiddly, cue lots of teeth gnashing.



Next up, some tweaked command, simple hand swaps to add variety. The pole is loose and will be replaced by a Flag Dude banner in due course.



And finally a couple of casualties from the Anglo-Egyptian volleys. The one of the left came out particularly well with arm across his body and sword slipping from his grasp. The other didn't quite work so well. I've not decided whether to mix these into units for variety or start making casualty markers for my whole collection.



Great as the box is for making a large horde of Mahdists, I have found the of contents quite restrictive in post. But I do like converting plastics and finding fun uses for bits from a range of sources. I hope to knock a few more up before the Challenge begins.

I also made the trip to Wyvern Wargamers last weekend for a Russo-Japanese War game using the Lardies' 'Through the Mud and the Blood' rules. Hosted by Stu, we used his beautifully painted collection of miniatures. It was a well crafted scenario and a real hoot of a game, with the Japanese forces tasked with securing a bridgehead across a river by game end. Stu may well post fuller writeup on his blog, but I took a few snaps myself.

Japanese blinds push across the bridge.

Russian Cossacks, freshly painted and on their first outing, charge into Japanese infantry stuck in the open. The Japanese rout, but the charge comes at a high cost for the Cossacks. 

One last push to secure a bridgehead fails and with night closing, the Japanese withdraw

EDIT: And as if by magic, Stu more fulsome briefing and AAR is now up: http://dusttears.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/russo-japanese-war-aar-3-forcing-river.html

From the Archives 2

With all going well at my recent nuptials, I'm now enjoying the delights of Bali on Honeymoon. It's a tough gig, I can tell you. I didn't bring any hobby materials and the latest issue of WS&S didn't arrive before I left, but I've now had chance to catch up on the few weeks' blogs.

Today, I bring you the fruits of another rummage through the archives: Infinity by Corvus Belli.

I got really into Infinity when it first came out, struck by the anime stylings and dynamic poses. Despite its premium price point, I built up a fair collection of PanOc and had a small dabble in Haqqislam and Nomads. The Nomads, never even came close to getting paint on them and were recently shifted to fund other projects, the Haqqislam may well go next.

Here we've got some early PanOc: Fusiliers from the starter set, a heavily armoured ORC trooper and one of my favourite sculpts, the medic on the left, calling in a medevac.

I also did quite a few conversions, more than I tend to do these days, as when I played there was only or or two variants of each troop type available: I preferred not to proxy. Here we have a simple weapon swap to give an Akalis a much nastier boarding shotgun rather than combi-rifle (sourced from a Void weapon pack) and on the right, an Akalis hacker. I was quite good at cycling the spare weapons around to other models to minimise wastage - the Akalis HMG went onto a converted Nisse scout long before the official sculpt was available.

Infinity as a system was really fun it is early days, I liked that it was human vs human vs human, though each faction was pretty similar for a couple of years - they seem much more diverse with more recent releases. The 'ARO' reaction system worked really well, allowing basically unlimited reactions to movements within line of sight, resolved by a face-to-face roll. While it sounds brutal, the fact infinity used D20 mean the aggressor had a chance and there were plenty of tricks to avoid reactions, like therm-optic camouflage and smoke grenades.

Infinity had a simple force selection system but it did allow some game-breaking lists: Gharak spotted that he could engineer a Yu Jing force with six missile launchers (3 support weapons usually being the maximum at 300 points and missile launchers pretty rare). Admittedly carried by conscripts, but he only needed one to hit to do some serious damage. So I brought a force which deployed nothing on the table: Them-optic camouflage and drop troops abound. Including a camouflaged TAG (mecha).

Last up, another ORC trooper and one of the extremely cute PanOc Dronebots - it's cute curves hiding the fact it brings an HMG to the party. I think most of the drone sculpts are ace.

The iffy lists, the ever-increasing complexity and the constant addition of new special rules became tiresome for me, as did what I saw as early of power creep with the alien factions out an end to my Infinity gaming. Oh and I moved away to another area for a new job, which meant I didn't have a group in the area. I'd have preferred they kept a streamlined system with special rules to a minimum, but I think the economics of the hobby mean Corvus Belli need to keep pushing out new shinies and cool rules for them.

I still keep an eye on the amazing rate of new releases and still think about half the sculpts are awesome, some don't quite work and a few are downright ugly. But it's unlikely I'll get another game unless Gharak fancies an old school one: I suspect my old PanOc are likely to be quite underpowered these days!

Terrain: Modding Sarissa Precision buildings

I picked up a small Sarissa shack at Salute, making four of their old west buildings. But I was curious how well they would take to being converted. The plan was to trim and fill some of the rafters holding the roof up, and make the windows much smaller, leaving the shutters off and sand the endless to lose the sharp corners. I also picked up a resin dome at Salute for the princely sum of £1.50, so I flipped the roof and stuck it on. After filling and sanding, the pieces were ready to be sprayed white:

I painted it the same as my last two, working from 'buff' to white using watered down layers. I'm pleased that you can barely see the filled areas once painted.

The painting went a bit awry too much fiddling around trying to perfect it, much messier compared to the older one. You can't see well in this shot, but I lifted the roof half a centimetre or so with some balsa wood.

I also gave these two small features a fresh lick of paint, they were grey before and looked a bit too much like concrete, I also tried a greeny ageing affect on the fountain. The water was an unrealistic blue and has been changed to a muddy green. I don't think painting terrain is my strong point, but these are somewhat better at the second attempt!

Challenge entries five and six: the KRRC, Commandos and Pulp

Entry numbers five and six were both small, the result of finally getting around to watching Danish series 'The Killing' (with its mighty fineSarah Lund jumpers). Although quite excellent, it eats into painting time as it is subtitled, so requires my full attention. I went off piste by making up some woods and rough ground, which set me back. 

Here's a firing line of King's Royal Rifle Corps for my dalliance with Colonial Sudan. I think I'm in a 'grey phase' at the moment, it certainly seems to be a feature of most of my entries. I had issues with them, I ended up re-doing the grey as it didn't match my first batch. It still isn't right but is closer, the chap on the left of the second photo was part of batch one, you can see that he already had grubby trousers whereas the rest are clean as a whistle (for now!). Perry sculpts - what else?

Next up, the first of the Blackwater Gulch characters, this one 'The Norwegian', I'm reliably informed he is an homage to the TV show 'Hell on Wheels'. Heaven knows what use I'll find for him other than BWG, perhaps a slightly unbalanced hitman with a penchant for antique firearms and bullwhips in a Pulp game? The flash of white among a head of very black hair is inspired by a chap I know.

Why so serious?

And a daring female adventurer for Pulp, ready to take on the world. A cracking Artizan sculpt. The blue comes out very pale in the photos, the second image is closest the the actual colour. 

Clearly a lady that won't need rescuing

Entry number six was just four models that I turned around in a few days: Artizan Designs British Commandos. One last pack I had in stock, I've 20 or so done but mostly wanted the mortar and PIAT finished. They will come in handy, offering some punch in games of Operation Squad. I drilled out the PIAT and added a wire to the radioman (since dubbed Mr Hendrix), both if which came out really well.

With these, I'm sitting at 195 points, barely over a third to my 550 target. In a week we'll be two-thirds of the way through the challenge. Eek!

Napoleonics: Cavalry, cavalry everywhere

I've been slogging away at the rest of the Household Cavalry Life Guards I posted the other week. And a slog it became, but I'm out the other side - the other five are now finished.

And with the originals, to make a more substantial unit. Why nine? Well I need eight per unit, but Perry come in packs of three so I just painted the lot. 

I'm particularly pleased with the horses, they came out well. I was a little more adventurous with the markings, though kept the coat colours very dark brown or black so they are more. Inform than my other cavalry units. I also changed the yellow cord for the trumpeter, plain it was quite jarring so I broke it up with red stripes. 

Samulus came over for a game of Sharpe Practice the other night, so while I had the table an terrain out I snapped both my units of cavalry together. The Life guards weren't quite finished at this point. I didn't take any photos of the game, so no AAR for you. 

And my next madcap scheme? More cavalry!

Photo sourced here:

http://greatestbattles.iblogger.org/GB/Spanish/Dragoons.htm

Yup, I fancied adding a few Spanish cavalry to my fledgling force. The offerings are pretty dreadful, though Captain have recently released some Cazadores a Caballo, they are quite pricey. Front Rank have some but they are chunky, static and only have a couple of sculpts. Other than that, I struggled to find anything to buy so the challenge is on to convert my own. 

I mentioned the Maria Luisa Hussars before, they would be easy. But a bit more Internet research I decided those snazzy yellow Dragoon Uniforms would be nicely different to anything else. And happily, Perry French Dragoons are a pretty close fit. 

Perry French Dragoon body, head from a Victrix early French infantry (I got a single sprue from eBay). A plume from the bits box and bit of green stuff to make the bicorne a bit more prominent and voila! Pretty close I think, the main differences being the crossbelt goes the opposite way (though having just one is a start!) and the sheepskin on the horse furniture, though I removed the jagged edge of that to make it less distinctive. 

I think ill paint them as the 'Regimiento de dragones de Lusitania'. What do you think? Does anyone have a good method for yellow - I don't!

Tiny Worlds Stone Walls: Painting part 2

Continuing from my last post, the walls needed some foliage, of course. First up, static grass in two colours. Spring green and some 'African Grass' which has a nice scorched grass colour. Notice the hedgerow now ncludes bushes - two small lumps I had spare from the AoW hedgerows set.

Finally, of course I had to add a scattering of Mininatur Tufts - early fall and late fall. These make an appearance on most things these days, i tried to drop them into the crevices where i imagine bushes and weeds will grow from. And with that, I declare them finished!

Here's a shot of the hedgerow connector. Not bad except the flocks are slightly different since I did the hedgerows.

And to finish off, some Perry plastic Redcoats making use of the cover, to show them in action and the scale.

And there you have it - I hope you I enjoyed my first two-part review and tutorial!

More progress

With a very real chance of getting a game or two of Blitzkrieg Commander in at CLWC, I thought I'd finish off the few bits I bought at earlier in the year, at Salute and before. To support my Late War British, more armoured might: three Shermans including a Firefly, an Achilles Tank Destroyer and a pair of Staghound armoured cars. Bring on the German Armour - plenty of 17pdrs here!

I'm starting to really like 10mm as a scale for WWII, the tanks look really dinky. These are mostly Pendraken, though the Staghounds are from Pithead miniatures. I didn't realise how massive Staghounds were, nearly as big as a Sherman. And its not that classic issue of different manufacturers - they really were nearly as big! The tank commander was converted from a Pendraken radio operator, that will serve as a command tank as required.

They didn't photograph particular well, but they are mostly a dull green/brown colour so not that interesting! I also used plenty weathering powder to grubby them up nicely. You may note the lack of markings, I may add some later, or just leave them as they are.

Oh, look, another switch of era and scale.

I've also finished the second batch (of four) of the secret project. So some considerable painting progress in a week!

Minoan Raiders; Weeping Angel; CLWC

First up this weekend, my finished Minoan Raider infantry. These are converted Wargames Factory Greeks, I whipped off the torsos and replaced them with naked ones from the WF Zulu frames. They all have wicked curved swords and the horsehair on their helmets got a trim too, to further differentiate them from Gharak's Athenians.

These Minoan Raiders are the mainstay of roving Minoan warbands, lightly armed and armoured but swift infantry. They just need shield transfers to finish them off. I also tried photographing on a blue background, borrowing some of the missus' card making card. Seemed to work well.


For a bit of variety, I spent this afternoon painting this small 'terrain feature', courtesy of Crooked Dice:

*Blink*

Scary, eh?

She was a cinch to paint. The base was GW Adeptus Battlegrey mixed with black, highlighted with the same mixed with Fortress Grey. I dry brushed carefully and used black wash to tidy up any errors and give more definition in the recesses. I tried to highlight more on the face and arms to really bring them out. Then I used watered Devlan mud (always seems to feature these days!), gryphonne sepia and heavily watered catachan green to add faint shades of colour to the flat grey. Especially so around the head and arms, I was trying to give that faint hint that she just could be alive....

I actually enjoyed the chance to paint a miniature all in one colour, like a very simplistic version of Curt's impressive Greyscale project.

Painting aside, I had the pleasure of joining Central London Wargames Club (CLWC) for a few small games of Saga on Thursday. They were a friendly and welcoming bunch (cheers Tamsin!) and its always nice to get some games in. Saga seems to have really taken off among those 'Saga Louts' so I hope to dust off my Vikings and join them on a regular basis.

Not looking good for my Vikings, fighting as usual under their Crow banner

I like surprises...[updated]

It was my birthday this week and true to form my brother grabbed me some hobby stuff. I'd pointed him towards the Critical Mass Games buildings, which I thought would make a good start to an industrial outpost for SciFi games. On first look they're really cleanly cast and well detailed, including interiors.

What I wasn't expecting was these two - scratch built (and painted!) SciFi wind turbines. I don't have a mini for scale to hand, but they're about 6 inches tall.

Apparently they're made from bits of Platformer kits. Pretty cool eh?

EDIT: these were a bit unstable as they're so tall. The addition of 50mm square bases improved the stability no end.

Unexpected presents are great!

Roar!

Or should that be 'Mooooo!'

As trailed recently, I've been finishing off my Minoan Minotaur for Aegeus this week. A lovely miniature from Otherworld miniatures, he stands at an impressive 45mm tall, I liked how he was tall but more like a gangly human, rather than GW-style muscled beast. I did slightly convert him have a cloth tunic rather than chain mail, with Mythological Greece not being well known for their chain mail.

He looks upset. Thorn in his toe perhaps?

Priced at £9 he wasn't cheap, but not too expensive either for such a fine miniature. With two new projects I seem to be in a buying phase at the moment: a small Otherworld order arrived today, two harpies and two giant snakes, more mythological assistance for my Minoan raiders. Each pack being the same price as the Minotaur they seemed a bit more of a luxury purchase, but the miniatures are very fine.

The skin didn't quite come out right here, the shade is a tad too grey - I wanted him to look quite human but with a very pallid flesh tone. As am afterthought I carefully lined the ubiquitous devlan mud over the grey, which improved matters somewhat. I am a lot happier with his face and snout, transitioning from black to pink flesh.

With a kneeling Redoubt miniature for scale.

I did get distracted by the Trooping of the Colour on TV yesterday, which inspired (well, distracted) me to finally fix up the rest of the Colours I picked up at Salute. It took a while longer than expected as I'm repainting the finials to suit my style. Here is a work in progress, I've still some touching-up to do from my cack-handed removal of the previous poles. The Guerilla standard bearer came out nicely, a custom design from Flag Dude

Image of the Virgin Mary on one side. The other reads 'Dios, Patria, Rey'.

After the Trooping of the Colour there was a flypast for the Queen's birthday, I managed to snap this view of the Red Arrows.

Not sure what'll have finished next, either my Minoan raider infantry or a small batch of Khurasan Command infantry for 15mm SciFi.

Aegeus - First playtests

Visiting Gharak, our aim this weekend was to get a few playtests of our work in progress ruleset, under the working title 'Aegeus'. As previously mentioned, we're designing a heroic skirmish game in a world heavily inspired by a Greek Mythology. Over the past few months we've bandied quite a few ideas around and felt we'd worked up a viable and fun ruleset.

I won't go into all the detail (that's for Gharak), but the core concepts are:
-Randomly-drawn command tokens to activate units
-Alternating activation of units/heroes
-Special D6 to determine combat hits, followed by a 2D6 vs armour
-Custom-designed heroes
-Scope to handle everything from hoplites and skirmishers to legendary heroes and a menangerie of mythological beasts, with five factions currently drafted.
-Core rules capable of both skirmish clashes between warbands and Heroic scenarios like Theseus and the Minotaur.

I've started with Minoans, but to my shame, I only managed the paint one single batch of archers, and even they aren't quite finished. Gharak had his Athenians all nicely painted, and very spiffing they looked too. Minoans are designed to be lightly armoured, fast and pull lots of tricks, but weaker in combat. Except of course the Minotaur! Athenians are more about discipline, solid combat characteristics and powerful allies like centaurs.

Game 1 - Minoans vs Athenians
The Minotaur threatens some centaurs, while Minoan archers on the left force the Athenian hoplites back.
You can see the custom dice on the table, made from blank dice. The bronze-coloured tokens are the orders assigned to each unit, with options including move, attack, move and attack, rally, defensive stance and so on. Each race will have a slightly different pool of order tokens, with Minoans having more movement options, for example.

Game 1 - Much later
The wounded Minotaur's rampage continues, he sees off the Athenian infantry on the top right. Meanwhile, a Athenian hero threatens my archers.

Game 2 - Final turn
For the second test game, we added a 'heroic challenge' action, where heroes are able to call each other out in single combat. This is the only combat which is resolved by face-to-face rolls, with a gambling element where on side can opt to bow out after the first (to great shame and VP loss) or could maintain the challenge but risk further wounds. Risky, but I found this 'mini-game' added drama to heroic combat which was fitting for the heroic era we're trying to evoke. Here, the Minoan commander takes a hammering and falls...

I'm happy to report that after four games, we feel it works really well, though we're tweaking things as we go. The command system has a nice mix of randomness and tactical depth and the combat system works nicely. Of course, we would say that, given we've designed exactly the game we both want to play. it remains to be seen if anyone else agrees with us!

Next up, more playtesting, including a very different scenario...