Work got in the way ... that my excuse

 This weeks efforts on painting where non existent, work having been super busy and working on house task to priority.  So my BX droids are my next mission for this long weekend, I started them last weekend, so still have quite a bit to do yet.

My painting inspiration wall is taking shape with my colour printer back in action and some old images from a very old Boris calendar I found in the unpacking process of moving into a new house. 

.... soooo good having all my toys back, after having everything in storage for a year.

Movement sticks

 First set of movement sticks almost done.. just a few touch ups to do. Looking way better than the plane old grey

Vinyl

 I finally got my record player up and running in the new house, so I can blast some tunes off some of the old records I've acquired over the last few months.

I picked this Alvin Lee album up purely for the cover art, having never listen to him. Man it's was $10 well spent, fantastic blues rock.

Hobby desk upgrade

 After a few years of having not enough space on my painting desk and storing paints all over the place, I finally got around to getting another storage tray for my paints. Battle Kiwi to the rescue with a vertical standing holder. Amazing how much more space I now have.

Star Wars Legion AT-ST build - continued...

 I've now got the model together on the base (a quick snap while it drys). I discovered my positioning was a little out, so the right foot on the rock hasn't got a strong footing, so the bond isn't great. So I'll need to green stuff it and build up the rock to the foot, otherwise I can see it coming off during a game. Should be an easy fix.

Over all I'm pretty happy so far, still got some detailing to do and even possibly adding in a trooper.

The Wild West

 My Wild West  gaming matt from Deep Cut studio turned up yesterday. I got it to match up with my Legion basing scheme, and also to use for a bunch of other games.

As with my other gaming matts from Deep Cut, its well made and looks great. Looking forward to using in my upcoming games.

Star Wars Legion AT-ST build - continued...

 After a day's drying of the base coat to allow the enamel to fully harden, I then coated the whole model with AK Worn Effects fluid using the air brush.

 Once dried I then applied the base colours for the desert camo using Vallejo paints and my air brush. Khaki for the under belly and shaded areas., then Golden Brown for the light areas. Then finally Iraqui Sand for the camo strips.

Once dry, I then used a hard bristle brush and started working out the chipping away the paint with water. The AK Worn effect fluid doing it thing and making it real easy to chip up. I had forgotten how good this stuff works.

When I was satisfied I had enough chipping on the paint work, I ran a gloss varnish over the whole model to seal it all together and to prep for the pin washing. Hardest part of that was knowing when to stop, chipping. its way to easy to over do it.

So for the pin wash I used a bunch of different AK products,

AK Dark Wash
AK Fuel Stains
AK Engine Oil
AK Light Rush wash
AK Damp Earth

Let it dry and then do a clean up and adjust the parts that ended up with too much wash or build up.

Matt coat the entire model to seal it together.

Star Wars Legion AT-ST build.

 Time to test out some modelling skills and weathering effects on the Star Wars Legion AT-ST. 

A nice big model to add in some little details. Started with the main body, adding in ladder rungs on the side, a rope on the top. I then used some left over lights from a 40K kit for front facing lights. Then using the two small plugs that came with this kit for plugging up the weapon mounts and attached them to the back. Also used a spare missile pod from a BattleTech mini which looks like some sort of sensor in this scale. Black undercoat and a glossy brown base coat for the rust effects base colour.

For the Base I've gone with a couple of stones and will position the AT-ST walking over them, with the main body turned so that it exposes the under carriage engine. Would be a shame to hide all that detail they have on the model. Using some blue-tak to hold it in place while I figured out the positioning.

Big Guns

 Got my 3D printer working sweet again after frying the hot end and having to replace it. So started cranking out Legion terrain few weeks ago. Got two large turbo laser turrets done and painted up.

Gotta love thing - XX-10 Turbo Laser Tower for Star Wars Legion by Syllogy - Thingiverse

New Year and new games

 So a new year and a new game of course. Now I finally in my new house and have all my toys back from storage, life is turning back to normal, well the new normal of course with good old Covid19. 

Painting and gaming now back on the table. This time its Star Wars Legion, which alot of the guys have gotten into at the club. In fact we had the whole club playing on Saturday. Here's a few shots of some the tables.

I started with the second starter box as I love the Droids. Also good to start painting again with something that isn't to difficult. Been a long while since I painted anything.

So on Saturday I played my first game against Bryan (second game ever for me and Bryans first game). We bumbled our way through it with help from some of the other guys. Was alot of fun and really close, we pretty much destroyed each other and then called it as a draw.

Second game I matched up against Joel, who want to test out Tank vs Tank battle with his Clone Troopers vs my Droids.

End result was 7 / 3 to the Clones, and both tanks finally destroyed by small arms fire. Awesome game and so close it came down the the last turn of the last round.

Roll on 2021 

Total Wreckage

This sums it up pretty well, Total wreckage is what was left of my Nova Cats in our game on Saturday.

Mark and Ian with Clan Wolf against David's Capellen and my Nova Cat's. Since David wanted to run his newly painted models, I dropped my light Star of Nova Cat's and Mark split his Clan Wold with Ian running the other half. One star each to run for the game.

We played King of the Hill scenario with the hill being the bridge in the middle of the city, wide open for all sorts of carnage, and carnage it was. 

From the first dice roll Ian was hitting me with criticals all over the place. This game produced the most ever Fire Control critical and so many Weapon damage critical hits it was comical.

 I got pretty well smoked from the start as Ian rolled like a demon on fire.

Jumping on top of a building wasn't my brightest idea with the rolls Ian was making.

The bridge quickly became a grave yard as the massive firepower from both side destroyed most things in a turn or two.

End result was 2 points to 0, loss for us. As 3 of my Star got wiped out and the other two remaining we barely able to stand. David faired alot better than me with only losing one.

Ian was definitely man of the match with his damn Vultures and stupidly good rolls ....

(i'm not sore about that at all;-))

Anubis

After my Jade Falcon defeat last weekend, I've decided to let lose my Nova Cats tomorrow as we get into the Civil War period of Battletech. I finally get to use my Anubis that I've had for about a year.

Small and fast, should be a bit of fun to play.

Will be very interesting to see how it plays out, I'm also using my Battle Cobra for only the second time as well, so the extra special equipment will add a bit more flavor for the game. My full list includes my favorite Phoenix Hawk.

With my birthday present of a turntable earlier in the month, I've been slowly building up a collection of vinyl. Currently listing to my latest vinyl addition: Living Colour: Vivid ,  that turned up this week.

Best concert I've ever been to....a very long time ago.

Rolling Dice ....Finally

Yep, finally I get to roll some dice in our first tabletop game in over 2 months, now that the 

COVID19 lock down has been lessened up.

 Mark, Ian and myself got to play a game of Battletech Alpha strike. Mark chose to be the umpire/rules man as its been awhile since we last played. I rolled out my Jade Falcon vs Mark's new Clan Wolf marshaled by Ian. We just grabbed 10 mechs each randomly and throw them down.

\

Mark had made up a great table of a beach side city.

I got a bit gung-ho and my lights got blasted quickly.

We danced around the building both trying to out gun each other

The crossfire in the middle of the table got really heavy

It ended in a close up slog fest with my guys taking heavy casualties. 

So it ended in a good win to Ian.

And a great day to actually roll dice and have human interaction beyond family.

I'm already looking forward to next weekends games

Van Halen 5051

Just finished listening to Van Halen 5051 album off my new turntable, managed to pick it up cheap online. Had forgotten how good album's can sound... I can see my record collection growing in the coming months.

No gaming or painting for a couple of weeks now. With our new house build taking off and birthday duties along with mother days time just ticks by.

The great thing is the house foundations were poured today, so we should find out an completion date by the end of the week. Renting is a bit painful on the wallet and has been extended thanks to COVID19 by a good 6-8 weeks, but at least I'm still working.

My Snake men finally turned up.. half of them anyway, still waiting on the order form the US, but at least I've started putting the one I have together. A mission for the next few days to try and get them all assembled.

May Day ... AKA Birthday week... AKA torture week

So its Friday the first of May, otherwise known as May day, and the week of my Birthday. With this COVID19 lock down still in force at Level 3 for New Zealanders its gonna be a bit of a different birthday that's for sure. I've already got a couple of my presents sitting in boxes in my room. My super awesome wife agreed to chip in for my latest new toy, a nice turntable for good old vinyl records. So I've got the turntable and a couple of records that also turned up on the courier as well.... fully ready for some new sounds blasting out from my Yamaha TTN503. It's gonna be a long week waiting to unbox and crack it up.

 I've already got the evil eye from the boss and told I have to wait until my actual birthday,  so I'm being good and waiting ...damn it.

Soooooo looking forward to playing the some "Fat Freddy's Drop" and the new album Special Edition Part 1.

The album artwork is just awesome - its screaming Slannesh for sure.

On the modeling side, my order of Snakemen is still missing in action somewhere between US and NZ, hopefully it will turn up at some point. Really looking forward to busting out a full Snakeman army for Warlords of Erwhon

So now off to play some Classic Battletech and drink scotch.