Easter surprise

At the start of the year I said I wasn't going to start any more miniature games, well, I haven't so far. (Now that's a surprise) Yes that's right, I’ve ended up playing other games using other peoples models, and acquiring a few more rule books. But I actually haven't started with miniatures from other games. I’ve managed to hold out, using stuff from my existing collection or borrow models.  I’ve also made a good dent in the mountain of metal I already have, having started on my Samurai army for FOGR and well into all those Flames of War Russians I have. Things are ticking over nicely.

So my main focus in the past few weeks has been Japanese based, with the Samurai army and putting together terrain for Ronin, Bushido and Malifaux. My 4Ground Shogunate buildings turned up the other day. They are absolutely fabulous, but extremely time consuming to put together.

My cork tile method is working a treat, and the table is starting to take shape nicely. The next big challenge is to figure out how to best do the water for the rice paddy’s. I’m going to try three different methods, the first being mixing in paint to some Kleer Resin. Which I've just pored into my first tile. (super strong smelly stuff) It looks good so far, but unsure how it will dry, fingers crossed it wont rain, as It's sitting outside so I don't stink out the house. I missed a spot when sealing the base, so had to use a bit of tape to plug the whole....resin leaking all over the place.

Yesterday I watched Lee and Paul play a game of Saga and also a little bit of Mark and Phil play a game of Drop Zone Commander. Here’s a few pic of the games.

After that I got in a game of Kings of War with Mark. A fun game which I can use all my old models. Went right down to the wire, before I lost out to the last few Goblins.

Slow going

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, the usual work and life getting in the way. Thanks to a few stitches in my shoulder and now a full on head cold. There was no gaming for me this past weekend. But things are starting to clear and I’ve been slowly, ever so slowly, chipping away at various projects of the last few weeks and have made some good ground in several of them.

Well first up I purchased myself a new set of dice, after the horrific performance of my current set, I just needed a change. Now of course a few days later, I find a bag of dice under my painting table.. typical… LOL… you can never have to many dice.

The first two projects I finished last week were completing my Tank Killer Company and Heavy Assault Company for my Russian FOW army. So ten new tanks to add to the massive force I have managed to acquire. (Soooo many infantry to go.)  I’ve now finished cutting down all the bases of Russian Infantry that I got given, and glued them all onto the correct size bases. Along with plastering up the edges of some 80 bases I still have about another 40 to go.  Then onto the task of painting and re-grassing the bases.

I’m also finished my first battle group of 15mm Samurai Warriors for Field of Glory Renaissance. A project that’s been a long time coming and it’s finally made it to the painting table. It will be a long time before it makes the gaming table but it has got my painting back underway.

There is also the SSU Steel Guard for Dust Warfare. All base coated, toned and ready for some inking and detail work.

Spent a bit of time working on some terrain for Ronin and Bushido today. We could also use the terrain for Malifaux as well I guess, for something a little different for the likes of Mark’s Ten Thunders gang. With what little energy I had I managed to get alot done. Finished the Japanese garden idea I’ve had for a very long time. I’m well underway with the crops and a couple of other tiles. I’m basing them up on some 1x1 foot cork tiles, each with a feature on them. The idea is we can then easily move them around and change the setup. I’m looking at doing a couple tiles of crops, some rice paddy’s,  fish pond, garden and a temple or shrine. Add to that some building that I’ll get very soon and we should have quite a good little setup for some Japanese based games.

WIP: Japanese style garden

W.I.P - Painting Progress

My painting effort so far this year has taking off, having had a break and holidays seems to have got me re-enthused to paint again. But today's effort in painting was well and truly dashed by that annual accounts (one of those necessary evil’s in life) but I still managed to get a couple of hours in and further my Ronin boys closer to being finished. Touch ups and basing still to do, but 6 pretty much done and 4 to go.

f Also in keeping with my new year goal of painting the models I have, I got stuck into several terrain bits for Mob wars I hadn’t finished up yet. Along with preparing a few other models. I’d thought I’d start a log of my painting, similar to my Gaming records. Here’s a quick list in no particular order  … (man I have alot to paint)

Ronin	4
Empire of the Dead	10
Steam Punk Gang	10
Mob Wars	11
Dr Who	7
Pirates	8
Pirate Ship (Large)	1
Wild West Civi’s	2
Bushido	8
Flames of War	an obscene amount of Russians
Hell Dorado	8
FOG Renaissance	Complete Samurai Army
Gladiator	18
Uncharted Seas  - Elves	9
1/6th Garage Kit models	2
1/32nd Scale Airplane models	3
Dark Age	2
Heavy Gear	5
Infinity	31
Firestorm Armada	10
War Machine	40+
War Hammer 40K	50+
War Hammer fantasy	50+
Dust - vehicles	6
Dust – infantry	46

Ronin

After discovering I already had miniatures for Ronin the other day, I had some down time to setup a roster sheet based on the one in the rule book, along with working out my first list. So this is what I ended up with so far. Once I get the miniatures painted I’ll update images. This way it will be really easy to pickup the roster and start playing, even after month or years sitting on the shelf.

Work in progress so far this week. Thought I try out a grey/black Ninja, rather than the boring old plain black. I’m undecided on if I like it or not.

I also managed to find a copy of the original 47 Ronin’s, good old B/W with subtitles. Haven't had time to watch it yet, but should be interesting to see it before the new 47 Ronin’s comes out (Which looks like it will be good.. visually at least)

Great start to the Year

With 2014 well under way, I've just registered for the Battle Cry Tournament in February. The Vikings will be putting in another appearance, with the smaller 600 point games this year instead of 800 points, my Egyptians are definitely staying on the shelf. With smaller battle fields they have no room to manoeuvre and would just get squashed way to easily. (as proven in previous games late last year). My army list is really simple… lots and lots of sharp pointy sticks.

I've already played a game of X-Wing with my 11 year old nephew, which was alot of fun and the little bugger managed to win as well. Also got a second game of Mice and Mystic’s under out belts. It was alot easier this time, after we realized a mistake in the way we were playing… making it a gazillion times harder for ourselves in the first game.

Painting wise I got stuck into the models for Mice and Mystics over the last couple of nights. A few people online have done some really nice paint jobs on these models, so I had plenty of inspiration. Here's what I've done so far.

I'm now working on the Cockroach's.

Today I got stuck into cleaning up and basing a bunch of models, the first 10 were my Captain Nemo gang for Empire of the Dead. I've removed the slot base tabs and put them all onto some dragon Forge bases. Pinning them all as well. It was actually really easy with a metal cutting disc on the Dremal.

After that I found some old Samurai models in one of my boxes and realized I can use them for Ronin.  They were a bit more work, removing the old school metal bases, repairing a let or two and mounting them on 25 mm bases. It's a bit of an odd ball bunch, but I'll see if I can use them in Ronin.

Also my first garage kit is coming along. I've made several big mistakes, but it's all a learning curve. I think the next one will be much easy, as the casting is so much better than this one, and it's also slightly larger scale which will help. The chalk pastel technique was really interesting to try out. I found the Army painter varnish dulled it down quite a bit, so next time I'll be using about double the shading I think.