A-A5 Speed Truck (W.I.P)

 

Started on my A5 Truck speeder quite awhile ago now. It’s been sitting on a tray in parts begging to be completed. So finally getting around to trying to finish it. The one thing that has struck me is that every model of it I’ve seen is setup on the base the same way in the default position. So thinking when I get to the point of mounting it on the base I will go for something non-standard. Just haven’t quite worked out what. Still quite a lot of painting to go.

At this point just focusing on the interiors as I have both doors open and was thinking of magnetising the roof. So perhaps it could also be used as a terrain piece as well as a vehicle in a game play.

A-A5 Speed Truck cockpit W.I.P

Fatties on a Roll

 

The guys at the gaming club are wanting to roll out some Judge Dredd next month, a game we haven’t played in very long time.(9 years or so I think)  So I went and found some Fatties to 3D Print for it and hopefully should get them completed in time.

3D files from PAPSIKELS MINIATURES - THE METAHUMANS JUNE 2021

Work in progress... 

Feather

 Been busy planning and starting on my largest linocut print to date, its 1200mm x 500mm. Took a few weeks of trying out different papers that came in large rolls before taking the plunge and buying a roll. Ended up going with Fabriano Accademia Drawing paper that comes in a 1.5m x 10m roll, for just over $100, so that should keep me going for a while.  All the time testing small sheets of paper I’ve been slowly working on the feather carving.

Picked up a really large permanent marker which makes checking my carving much easier. Been steady progress so far, so should have finished the carving in another week or so.

Waterfall Landscape

 Managed to get a really nasty sinus infection that flattened me for a week or so, only just coming right now. I did get a bit of work done on my largest linocut to date and pulled a print off it yesterday. Still has quite a bit of cleanup work to do on it but it’s coming along nicely. It’s also my first landscape style print.

 

My father also made a really nice handle for my restored and converted mangle press.

Ridia and Chrysi (W.I.P)

 I signed up to Hector Moran @RoninArtsWorkshop to get a few models to test out and improve my airbrush skills. Still struggling a little bit on the paint consistency and getting that just right every time. More practice needed and more often I think will be the trick.

So spent a few hours playing with AK paints and skin tones and mixtures of flow improver and thinners. It's quite amazing how different colours need slightly different mixtures. I think I'm slowly getting better.

This is the NSFW version - 3D Printable Ridia and Chrysi - Double Pin-Up (NSFW) Set by Hector Moran (myminifactory.com)

Masina Island Rogue: WIP

Trying to work on my airbrush skills and improve my control I've been running into some paint flow issues and getting varied results and problems. Having a much greater success now I've got my mixing in of thinner a lot better, I thought I'd try out the Flow Improver that just got released by AK. (or at least just landed in my local hobby store)

So far after the base skin tones put down on this model, I'm in the I have no idea if it helped or not camp at the moment. I had less issues this time and maybe I just picked them up sooner and my practice is starting to pay off. I think more time on the brush will be needed before I can come to any conclusions. But at this early stage it hasn’t hurt using the Flow Improver.

The model is from "The Dragon Tappers Lodge" 

3D Printable Masina Island Rogue - Presupported by The Dragon Trappers Lodge (myminifactory.com)

Also just done some youtubing on the Flow Improver options and how others use it, so have some more experiments to try out using less thinner and more flow improver.

Diorama : Friction Garage

 Once I started on Amanda Pistons and watching a few videos online I got enthusiastic and thought I try out a full-on diorama and get away from painting war gaming minis for a bit. The plan which has morphed a few times as I build it. Basic idea was to have a cyberpunk style garage.  First up was some oil barrels. Again upscaled off some models from 3D Printable Oil Drums by Marián Corvis Kronauer (myminifactory.com) 

Second, I found some concreate mix from Ak Interactive in the local store, so gave that a go, following along with their YouTube video which gave me the idea for the floor stripes. Still got alot to tidy up on it after trying out a few different things. it's actually really good product and easy to use.

Cityscape and Roads Battletech

The cheap as toy road tape turned up in the post from China today, I got it off AliExpress. I rolled some out over a couple of bits of balsa wood I had sprayed grey as a test.   Cheap, quick and looks the part. The tape inst that adhesive, but its meant to be for little kids and removable, so I was expecting that. Next step is to test gluing some down with watered down PVA.

Most of my building are getting close to being finished, just need about three times as man now.

Roll on the weekend for some more gaming.

Castle Build

Inbetween lawns, gardening and going to see Black Panther today I've almost got my Castle build complete. I haven't gone with building the traditional square, which ends up a big foot print but still small space to hold troops. I've gone with a long wall with a few different angles so we can do out some large battles.

Dice trays and bases.

I've been getting bases from Battle Kiwi for sometime now. As a local supplier, Olivier has & is, always great to deal with. My last order was no exception. with some custom bases I requested for my Hail Caesar army. 

These are the new bases for my Light cavalry skirmishers, which have turned out awesome. It will make it easy moving the skirmishers around the table and easy for everyone to tell that they not formed up and skirmishing.

Cavalry skirmish bases

Cavalry formed base

I also got a custom dice tray made up. With my wife being Norwegian and playing Saga at the moment I couldn't go past having a Shield Maiden as the background image.

The tray is really nice to roll dice on, with the faux leather (yeah I had to look at that up, its artificial leather). The dice stop nicely and don't really bounce that much. Of course you could get the dice to bounce right out if your gonna be a He-man about it. For the price I think its well worth it.

One thing to watch out for if you get a custom one made, is the image you use, make sure the lines are thick. The Shield Maiden has some fine detail in and around her face and it gets a bit lost in the dark tones.The details is there, it just blends in when you look at it from further away.  But the pattern in behind her stands out really nicely. Just something to consider when choosing your image.

  You can check out the dice trays at https://www.battlekiwi.com/product/dice-tray/

I'm also making up my own dice holders for wound count, and using the corner position on the movement trays. That way is simple to move the units around and not worry about moving all the wound tokens with the units. really good when you end up in the middle of a messy mass battle. They are just made from some old grey-stuff I had lying around and a 20 mm base and take a 16 mm dice.

and last of all my new generals for the Successor army ready for some undercoat and paint.

The victorious slaughtering Ghar

So we are about 8 games into Beyond the Gates of Antares now. My Ghar army has grown and I'm almost finished painting 1500 points worth in just over a month. Which is crazy good for my painting speed. So 2017 is shaping up to be a good painting year.

Sunday Mark and I got in two more games, in which we played the Return to Base Camp scenario. First up Mark was defending and I was attacking..or should I slaughtering. It was a very one sided affair as I mowed though Mark's Concord. I had taken a 5 man battle squad which turned out rather effective. Expensive, but very effective. So I'll be testing out running larger squads in teh next few games.

Having a better grip on the rules now, I'm getting into using more of the specialist weapons and rules and making good use of them. As Mark found out how nasty disruptor weapons are when you get two squads to close to each other.

After lunch we ran the same lists but I swapped to defending. This time Mark's Concord had alot more success, but still found it hard work against my Command crawler with Leader 2 rules, which saved it from destruction twice, much to the disgust of Mark.

I've also picked up the Gluper model from the campaign book, which I'm hoping we will actually get to run the campaign. Just started on him today with some base airbursh work

Then of course for Christmas, I picked up the Brood Mother from the Bormites, which are going to be my second army once I finish painting the Ghar. I held out this far, but couldn't any longer, just had to put it together to see it. It's huge, once you put it down next to a Ghar battle amour suit and a standard Ghar model, it towers over them all. She's gonna be epic, both in the painting and on the table.

It's not a good fitting resin model, with alot of green stuff required. Sure you could leave alot of the gaps, which they did in the photo on the box, but I didn't like that look, so went to town with the green stuff. The legs are also a mission, getting an even stance and wanting 5 good contact points out of the 6 legs, proved to be a bit of a challenge. One leg to go which will need a bit of surgery and pinning to get it to look right. 

The Frozen Horde

Today was the first frost of winter, which is the going theme of my gaming at the moment. Pretty much frozen in place, with little gaming happening.

 But my surge of modelling continues as the mission of putting together the 160 models for my Abyssal horde crawls forward, along with finally putting all my Union troops together for my ACW army. I’m about half way through the Abyssal army assembly line now and have even managed to get paint to some models. I’m also finally getting the hang of racking up the models in rows as I assemble them, so they will actually fit together in formation on the larger movement trays. That’s the one pain when dealing with lots of models on small bases that have lots of overhanging spiky bits. I’m really liking the models ,but man they are painful to put into formation. I’ve had to number the bases of each model so I know how to put them all into their formations.( god damn nightmare if you mix them up )

I found an unopened Hell Dorado model on the shelf that makes for the perfect Archfiend, and a couple of demons from Warhammer that make for some nice Hero models to round off options for my army lists. Add to that my good old hell hounds (also from Warhammer) and I’ve got a damn good selection to choose from. Really looking forward to trying out the army on the table next week at the club.

My counter attack wound markers turned up and I’ve done them all up in the winter theme. The outcome was surprising good. Although the numbers on them are a bit small for my liking, would have liked them to be a bit larger…. I think old age and bad eyesight is more of an issue. They are a great little product and good value I though, should make gaming much nicer with less issues knocking the D10 dice over I have been using.

I also picked up a turn counter, yep...how many years have I been gaming and have never had one,..too many

I also got some winter theme tree’s to add to my terrain collection and have found a winter based gaming map that I’m eye up for purchase. The plan is to be able to do a full winter / ice theme table.

Soooo many models.

So my birthday rolled around again on the weekend and one or two toys turned up in the subsequent loot. Thought I best do a post since its been awhile. With winter closing in, gaming and modeling is replacing my photography buzz that I've been on. Several games of Kings of War at the club and at Mark's has got my fingers twitching again for rolling dice and painting.

 First up was the Kings of War Mega Force for the Abyssal's. Had my eye on this for quite awhile, and they had only just arrived into stock. The clincher for getting it was when I dropped into a games store to pickup some more glue and having a browse around the shop as you do, pulled out a nice big Demon box from GW off the shelf ... $200 for one big Demon ... it's a really nice model ...hmmm or..160 plus models for the same price, which is an entire army for Kings of War. No Brainer.


Then on Sunday while gaming around at Marks, the boys had got me a present. An awesome one at that, they gave me the Dark Elves Kharibdrass (Hydra)

So of course I just had to put the big boy together,,,(yes its a boy, cos its butt ugly ... no way you can call it a girl...LOL)  Decided that I'm going to do me Abyssal army with an Ice Winter theme and also paint the Hyrda up in the same theme.

Putting it together was pretty simple, one of the things GW still does really well is the instructions with the larger models, (shame about the price of there stuff) also decided not to cram the two beast masters onto the same base. That way the Hydra would sit nicely in the middle of the base with less overhang , which makes for nice gaming when units get base to base in combat. I've put on some cut up cork for ice crystals, green stuff a few cracks and he's ready for under coating.

Also finished putting together the 10 gargoyles from the Abyssal force. These are the "Res-Tastic" stuff, kinda plastic and resin. Haven't had many models made of this stuff. Not that nice to clean up, but it's probably just a skill I need to pickup.

My lovely wife also order me a nice headphone holder, but since it's coming in from overseas, it hadn't arrived, so she got a bottle of Tequila as a stand in ... oh bugger, I'll just have to wait.

Warlord Games ... Bless them (or curse them) ..haven't decided that one .. :-) sent me a £10.00 discount coupon, which of course I couldn't resist, so I ordered  the "Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook". Since I have all their other games, and love them all, why not add one more.

Now back to the task of cutting, cleaning and gluing all those models...and my Union troops for ACW.

 

It’s a world of S’laughter after all

On the board gaming front, I picked up “Small Worlds” the other day. Been meaning to get this for awhile as it look like alot of fun after watching a YouTube video or two.

Also I see there is a new expansion just out for Elder Signs, Gates of Arkham. It’s another favorite game of mine that doesn't see enough table light.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/

“It’s always fun to go a little more  insane”  

On the miniature painting side I've been a bit side tracked by other things, but have started on my Bushido figures again which have been steering at me from the desk for far too long. Needed a change from the all those Pike and Shotte guys. Here's a few quick snaps using the old iPhone.

 This guys is all done, just needs a matt varnish.

W.I.P Bushido

Work on my Bushido models is coming along nicely.

Temple Bushi

Akimoto

Random stuff

Like my life at the moment, it full of random stuff happening and changing from one extreme to the other, so no surprise my gaming is a bit like that as well. (which is kinda normal for me anyway) My 15mm Samurai army has been a work in progress for some, but now it’s on my desk, I’m chipping away at it quite regally. With my first Yari battle group now on bases and three more battle groups lined up I’m actually feeling like I’m making progress finally.

I’ve also recruited some War Machine models in for my Kings of War army, with some of my Legion of Everblight going to see the table top again. I’ll be able to try out a few different lists and see if I can beat those bloody Angels of Phil's…. dirty, dirty beasts that they are.

I’ve also kept my terrain building momentum going and done up my first attempt at a bamboo forest. Think it needs some more work, the plastic leaves …looks a bit plastic, so I think I may have to paint them up a bit. Also finished my third rice paddy and a bunch of hedges.

.