30 August 2014

Photography

After living in my current house for 10 years, we have finally gotten around to putting up a bunch of photos in the family from all of our travels and thousands of photos. We are turning one of the walls into a photo gallery and covering it in framed photos. As I've been sorting out and going through all photos looking for the best pictures, I came across these two little gems from a trip a few years back.
New Zealand Robin
New Zealand Robin

Bell Bird
Bell Bird

29 August 2014

Beer O'clock

Friday again, and another new beer to try out.... seems to be a habit forming here ... oh what a shame.

It's official, I'm a sucker for good advertising. Being a fan of the probation era I, movies, gaming and artwork alike it was a must buy. The label is a very accurate for discription of the taste, hitting the spot for Friday night.  It's making me want to bust out a few games of Gansters.

More horse work underway, keeping up my fast pace of painting I'm getting through them. The last 24 horse for the army. My macro lens really does show up all my mistakes, but I don't really care, I'm having fun painting this way and the models look pretty good once they are all on the table. 

My painting table is rather full at the moment and my last few Bushido models are screaming to be finished, so they may get some attention this weekend. 



28 August 2014

Epic Save

 Tonight was spent on the T34/85, it was all going really well when I decided to matt varnish the tank before taking some photos to post up. hmmmm ... I've never ever ordered any Army Painter spay other than there Matt varnish.... oh how I was surprised to find out  I have white primer spay.

Now, yes I know you should always check and spray a bit of paper or something. Talk about a noob mistake. All I did was clear the nozzle out into the cold night air. then give the tank a good short blast.

F$^%&,   F$^%&,    F$^%&

So I rush inside, grab the turps and a rag, and start rubbing. The thing that saved me is the two layers of hardened gloss varnish. After several minutes of cursing (thankfully the wife wasn't home) I've ended up with whats below. The Red star is the side that didn't get a coating of white primer.





An Epic save in my books.
Time to stop painting and go get a huge glass of scotch.


The tank needs a good wipe to clear off all the  fluff from the rag i used to clean it, and then fix up the tracks and wheels. That can be for another day.


27 August 2014

Early Parliament Army list.

With some more games of Pike and Shotte planned for the next club meeting and the rest of my models turning up. I can now field a full 1000 point army. After re-reading the rules some more I corrected a few mistakes from my first list..e.g. the way I was using generals and come up with this list.


To save on having to buying one extra unit, I'm going to use my Dragoon unit as two separate units. Since you get 12 foot and 12 mounted models in the one box, I'm forcing the mounted to stay mounted and the foot to stay on foot. That way I get good use out of all the models and I don't think it will make a difference to my game play... especially the way I play.

26 August 2014

The Rust of War

Once I started on the T34/85 yesterday, I couldn't stop. Needed a bit of a change from all those Pike and Shotte models anyway.So tonight I got stuck into the chipping, rust and slime effects, using the AK products that I have.

Here’s a few close up shots of on what I've done so far. Once it’s dry I can clean up the streaks and a few of the over runs then gloss varnish again before the decals and other craziness




25 August 2014

Air Brush Grove

got into the grove this evening with the air brush and went a little crazy. Put three layers on onto two units of horse for P&S (Pike and Shotte) and then base colours the riders. 

I also tried a few splatter effects to try and do some spotted horse. ... Not so good.



Then a base coat on my 70mm infantry canon for Bolt action. Then decided to base my T34/85 tank. Planning on using some chipping techniques on it so started with a dark red brown for the base.


Used up the extra browns on my canons for P&S




24 August 2014

Sated

Work intruded on my morning a little so I only managed to get in one game of Bolt Action today by the time I got over to Mark’s place. This time I was playing Will with his Germans. So for a bit of a change up I adjusted my last list and put in a tank, just proxyed it with my T34/85 that I have for my Russian force that I haven't started yet. As I want to get a feel for what type of tank I want to get before going out and buying it.


Will rolled up the Maximum attrition mission and then Mark setup the table for us, which looked great with all the work he’s done on the buildings.

The game started out about even, but I had the nasty Tank and a Recce vehicle to deal with which caused be no end of trouble over the game, with nothing that could damage the bigger German tank (cant recall what it was) from range I only have my suicide anti-tank guys that had a small chance to take them out.

Bolt Action Japanese vs German

Bolt Action Japanese vs German






Bolt Action Japanese vs German
Veteran suicide bomber beginning his run down the road
My Veteran suicide bomber was a man on a mission, he ran down the entire length of the road taking shot after shot and getting so close to his target only to be totally blitzed after having half of Will’s army on turn on him and take him out. (Which they did in the end, but only after Will used alot of order dice)
In the end my mistakes on a few units, not getting there pin markers off them and some poor rolling at the beginning saw me lose after 7 turns. I had 4 of my 11 units left and Will had 6 or 7 of his 10. So I didn't get my butt totally kick, unlike last weekend.

Will’s done a nice details write up of the battle on is bog,Will's Ramblings NZ
I’m still enjoying Bolt Action, even with it’s few odd rules, that Recce vehicle rule is a bit broken I think. But I guess I can have a vehicle that has that rule as well, so fair is fair.

So with the gaming itch nice sated I headed home for some more pondering over how to change my list and include some bigger guns to deal with the German tanks.

oh yeah, and Will had done up a tee-light candle for flame and smoke damage, which he got to use on my tank once he destroyed it.... very cool look... not so cool

22 August 2014

TGF

Thank the Gods it's Friday, 8pm and I'm still working. Ahhrrrrr
The one good thing is I can do this work from my office at home.
Although this is the part that I sit around and watch a small line of dots creep slowly across the screen.

Today liquid of sanity is a simple light drop of Kirin. A smooth and easy drinking beer.

I'm currently putting together my two new cav units and cleaning up the metal riders. The Harquebus unit it rather nice, I think I like these guys the best so far out of the cav units from Warlord. Looking foward to painting these guys. 

Oh..oh... Another blip further along...man it's going to be a long night.... Life of an IT geek when shit goes wrong ... Is you have no life outside of a 17 inch screen... The story of the week .. Shit happens ... Way to much for my liking.

Back to more fun things, I also need to decide on a basing scheme for my Greeks. The plan is to make a whole bunch of them dual purposes, so I need to base them up for Hail Ceasar 2x2 models on square bases/ movement tray, then have them actual models on round bases. This way I'll be able to use them in things like Saga and other small skirmish games. Marks looking at doing the same thing for his army, he's currently looking at 20mm rounds on a 50mm square base. I don't think that will work with my Greeks, think I'll need to go with 25mm rounds. Time for some surfing and searching for bases inbetween checking on servers. .... Roll on Sunday gaming.

20 August 2014

Parliamentary Pike and Shotte

Another hit of plastic crack turned up today at the door, my last two boxes of Cavalry for Pike and Shotte, so I’ll be able to field my 1000 point army at the next club meeting. In the mean time I've been slowly chipping away at the mass painting.
Pike and Shotte - Parliamentary Pike and Shotte - Parliamentary


Pike and Shotte - Parliamentary



Pike and Shotte - Parliamentary

I decide to use the dead and wounded models on bases and add numbers for the number of causality's, so I only need one on the table per unit. It should look good and be more workable than having lots of dead models behind the units. Also saves getting more dead guys.








So my list works out like below. Not sure about the number of Generals, need to recheck the rules but that wont change the list to much either way.
Pike and Shotte - Parliamentary

19 August 2014

Axe welding manic versus hard drive

Axe welding manic (A.K.A Mark) versus hard drive …(a just because we can moment)
It was a well fort battle, Mr Hard Drive taking a beating but not with out a fair amount of back lash, but in the end Mr Manic walked away with the win and a rather sore hand.

Just another normal Sunday Morning in South Auckland

On Sunday I got in a game of Bolt Action. First in while, and got my butt kicked by Phil’s Americas. The rules sure fade from the mind fast after after 5 weeks. That's the problem when you try and cram in so many rule sets into the madness in my head. Also doesn't help when you try and cram in mindless facts and figures that I need to remember for an exam I need to pass very soon. Sometimes I really hate being an IT geek.

I got well and truly toasted by the America air support blasting one of my units completely to bits. the the rest of my guys got pretty well mashed. But that's how the dice roll sometimes, or don't as this case was.

Will has finally found his painting mojo and his Germans are starting to look really good.

Mark's also been on a painting mission and got some of his vehicles looking awesome.

So based on this rate of game play we have well and truly committed to playing Blot Action for the longest period over any other game in the last few years, we may even see it catch up with the overall most played game, being FOG, which we normally play alot at the being of the year in prep for the BattleCry competition.

Only time will tell.



16 August 2014

Two down ...too many to go.

Almost finished the second cavalry unit tonight. They are still rather shiny thanks to the ink layer, but that will dull down when I matt varnish them. So tempting to spend more time on them as they are nice models . But I have another 200 or so models to go for this army, so plan on sticking with my speed painting methods. 



15 August 2014

Plastic Crack


Tonight's post is bough to you by Tuatara APA. I just had to buy it and try it out, as it reminded me of Henry a captive Tuatara (A dinosaur lizard) that is about 110 years old and became a father a few years back. Now that's stamina. I took some photos of him some 15 years ago when I was down in Invercargill. (Aka the ass end on NZ..not a bad place, just freakin cold in winter). The beers a nice drop, not to hoppie for me and hasn't triggered my asthma reaction to beer, so that's a definite plus, and at 5.8% it not trying to kick ya head in like some of the boutique beers do with high alcohol content.

On things more gaming, The nefarious cat trying to steel my plastic crack while I was at work today. Caught on camera by "The Boss", thankfully she rescued the box from the teeth and claw destruction


Yes my Greeks for Hail Caesar arrived today.
$#$&@?!  What have I done.
Now I have even more to paint, 

So this is the start of my Greek army, the plan is .....lol..(yeah right like I ever stick to my gaming plans)
Is to gather all the models and slowly chip away at them to have ready for march next year when we plan to have some big games at the club.

Interesting thing about the Warlord boxes compared to there Pike and Shotte box sets, is they have no bases. Not a major at all, but since I had purchased my Pike and Shotte boxes first I was expecting them to come with base. 

"The beer bottle is broken damn it... It's empty already..  Guess that means ill be buying more in the future"
So I've come to the conclusion that I have an plastic crack addiction. Well I've always known it, so why fight it, I'm now going to alter my new year resolutions' as I've managed to fail even coming close to it in the last few years.

My new motto ... "Those who die having the most fun win" 
Life is to short to limit ones fun.

Roll on Sunday gaming. :-)




10 August 2014

The sound of canons.

So Saturday bought about the huge Pike and Shotte battle at the South Auckland Gaming club. My very first game of Pike and Shotte. The original idea was to do the Battle of Marston Moore, but with the numbers and points, we ended up just basing our army lists on that battle, as we needed to swap the Scots over to the Royalist's side to balance out the points.

Glen, Bryan and Kevin were running the Royalists while Arthur and I were running the Parliamentary side. At 2500 points per side we had a couple of thousand models on the 8 x 16 foot table. To save time once the terrain was set down both sides drew up there deployment plan for there respective sides, then we all deployed at the same time.

Kevin's praying for his Scots before the game even starts.
I deployed my troops down the right hand flank while Arthur took his larger force and covered the center and left flank. The large hill was just inside my deployment zone, so I managed to get all three of my medium canon's deployed directly in place so they could started bombardment of the Royalists from turn one. Bryan's massive cavalry force deployed opposite to me, but was bunched up due to the river cutting off the end corner of his side. The Scots deployed on the center of the table while Glen setup opposite Arthur's main force.

Turn one and the Parliamentary force rushes forward, my canons roaring and dealing out some damage. Mean while over the next few turns I manage to either disrupt some of Bryan's cavalry or he managed to fail all of his command orders, so they stood still for a full three turns.


Arthur advances his troops along the river bank while the canons on either side shoot it out.


Arthur's cavalry goes down the middle followed up by his infantry.  

Parliamentary forces advance
As we are all new to Pike and Shotte, there aren't to many models with paint on them yet, most of my stuff has a base coat and first colour down, but even that has a long way to go before it's finished.

My Crassiers lead the charge down the right flank. (painted models always win of course)


The rest of my infantry move up behinds cover and get into shooting positions while Arthur's cavalry charge down the middle to get stuck in and cause some chaos.



Glen ponders how to deal with those charging Ironside Cavalry
As I'm waging war against Bryan's Cavalry down the other end of the table, Arthur is sneaking troops down the far left flank.


 The Cavalry finally clash and Glen finds out hove nasty those Ironside Cavalry are as things start to die.


With Brian stalling his Royalists I move up my infantry beside my Cavalry and get ready for some hard work as I'm out numbered by several units.

Brian finally gets his army moving and digs in behind a rock wall as we start a good old shoot out.

At the other end of the table Glen and Arthur are getting stuck into each other..
Well actually Arthur is destroying Glen's Royalists.


My Cavalry and infantry get bottle necked as they all try and clamber into fighting positions as I start going through Bryan's cavalry units.


After some good clashes of our cavalry units and a few withdrawals on my side I've managed to cause heavy damage on Bryan's Royalists, with only losing three units in total myself.


Glen and Bryan contemplating the collapse and defeat of the Scots along the river bank. 
This was the beginning of the end for the Royalist.

Not long after that my canons inflict the final blow to Bryan's Crassiers and break his army on the right flank. Arthur also finishes up Glen's resistance as well.

A convincing win for the Parliamentarians. 

I lost one Pike, one Musket and one horse unit in total, and Arthur had lost about the same, so it was a full on victory for sure for us.

My Carassiers worked really well for me, the mortar I had was mostly missing and my Dragoons never saw combat at all. My canon's were awesome, and take the prize of breaking Bryans army, so I'm looking forward to trying out some heavy canons in the next game. Overall I was happy with my list, I've already noted a few changes for next time and worked out a 1000 point list.

It was great fun, (always helped by winning of course) and a really good way to learn the game with such a big battle there were plenty of different interactions and a good cross section of the rules covered during the game. We made some mistakes on rules as you do and adjusted as we went keeping it fair when we worked out what we were doing wrong. I really liked the game system, and it will be even more fun once we start taking advantage of some of the other more advanced rules and tactics.

Now back to the painting table to get more paint on plastic for next months battles.