27 April 2020

Blast from the Past


So not much painting or gaming getting done in the last few days. I did start another game of BattleTech with Mark using the Steam Table top simulator but only got a few turns into that. I have however been on a Blast from the Past ride. First up was my very very old T-Shirt from the Cyber Cafe days and doing all nighters after work playing the classic "Marthon" first person shooter. Busted out the T-Shirt for some serious gardening on the new section. Took down about 200 Privet trees today which need to go, they grow like damn weeds her in NZ. (the joys of owning an ache section with native bush)  


 I have also been looking a turntables and stereo systems for the last few/six months, and with my birthday coming up I thought it was time to take the plunge and get myself a turntable. So dropped a bit of cash on a new Yamaha turntable. All going well I should get it in a few days with NZ moving to level 3 of lockdown tomorrow,. Which means more people can start to go back to work. hopefully this sexy beast will be busting out some serious Pink Floyd in a week or so,


24 April 2020

Classic Battletech : Game 2

So this time around I got to create the map for Game 2. We also set out for a 2500 point game and choose our own mechs, At that points level it meant we kept at about 2 or three mechs.
 With Mark going Dragon Combine and me of course going with Free Worlds League.
I managed to find the sheets and Mechs for the game so we are ready to rock.


Hopefully tonight we will get time to crank out turn one.... once I figure out some objectives for the game.

23 April 2020

Classic Battletech

Well On Sunday Mark and I got in our very first game of old school Battletech using Table Top Simulator. Mark had setup a classic BT board with some terrain and we each took three random mechs. With both of us using the Steam version it took a couple of turns for us to work out how to lock the sheets and counters down so things didn't go flying all over the place, but once we got that sorted it was very much like play a real tabletop game. Although I did miss roll the dice myself.
Tabletop Simulator


It took about an hour or so to get the hang of the navigation and moving around the camera view, but it wasn't painful or frustrating to learn.



Love being about to get down have have a real table top view.


Mark had also put in the full check sheets for the game, although I found it easier just to use my own printed onces.



We tried out the add on sheets for the damage, but in the end found that the good old style pens were actually better and made it feel much more like the old school game.


The first casualty of the game was my Black Hawk which Mark managed to get in a couple of critical hits in the second turn and take out both Gyro's which meant the Black hawk ate the dirt and wasnt able to move after that.
The rest of the was all out battle and I ended up losing as my luck ran out.







13 April 2020

Snakemen

I spent all of 3 minutes searching the web for snake pictures and got inspired to start on my snakemen from Reaper Bones. Sticking to the naming theme I went for a typical python pattern for the Python Guard and decided on a coral snake pattern for the High Priest of Hissta

I got the first base coat down and and a few highlights in. (Photos are off my mobile, so not great). Now I just hope my order from Reaper will eventually get here. (who knows with the current state of the world how long it will take) I decided to buy some more of the same models and make up a couple full units. I'll end up with a unit of Python Guard and a unit of Viper Guard along with the Priestess. They are  little on the expensive side, but we need to support everyone we can in these crazy times.


11 April 2020

Old school skeletons

So today would have been the usual South Auckland War games club day, but with the COVID19 lock down in effect its not a happening thing. So I rummaged through my bits box and lose ends to discover I had enough parts of old models to make bits up a few skeletons. Ended up finding 12 in all, not sure where I picked them up from but they are perfect for my undead army. I also managed to find my original skeletons from eons ago, along with a undead dragon and mage. This means I can easily form up an undead list for WoE. I'll just need to do some repainting to bring them all together as its a bit of mismatch.




Also found the Snakemen list online which got me very excited as my Reaper Bones kick starter has 6 great models in it, and if I use my ITO clan from Bushido I'm very close to a 500 point list for Snakemen. 
Now I just need to decide on a painting theme for them.



07 April 2020

Stepping it Up

While the country is in lock down and everyone has to stay at home, my mission was to keep with the exercise and see if I can do 10,000 steps a day.
So far I'm managing to hit my target for the last 10 days now. Will be interesting to see if I can keep it up for another couple of weeks. 

05 April 2020

Crypt

After 15 hours of printing I found that the crypt 3d print was in a messy state. The column supports had failed, but as it was nearing the end of the print i decided just to let it finish.
A bit of cleanup and the main base is looking good and should pain up nicely. The supports failed completely but the print didnt them in the end.
Painting wise I've made a start on the catapults and a crypt stone coffin along with 3 ladies, one of which is a Vampire for my undead army.
Also finish up my D&D dice box. Just the vanishing to go.

04 April 2020

Rise of the skeletons

So the rise of my skeleton army begins with the completion of my third 3D print of the bone catapults today. Got them cleaned up and undercoated. And have kicked off the 20 hour print of my first crypt for part two of the graveyard. Hopefully I've got enough PLA on the roll to complete it.
Also started painting up my new D&D style dice box. 


With such an awesome sunny day I did some hard labour down at the back of our section. Put in a stile on the back fence for easy access to the native bush. No power tools involved. 

03 April 2020

Going old school

So with the full lockdown well into the second week I was suprised to find a couple of books I bought online actually arrive on the doorstep this afternoon.

I'm definatly not complaining, gives me something to read and work out my Tyranid list for when we get some games in at the club .. if that happens again.

So now I just need to find which box my Tyranids are in amongst everything's else in a 40 foot storage container... the Joy's of renting a small place.

02 April 2020

Goals and Catapaults.



The Goal list for 2020 in a COVID19 infected world of lock downs.

1. Do blog posting at least once every few days.
2. Do some painting or modeling every few day.
3. Complete an Undead Army for WoE
4. Complete a table top worth of terrain with an Undead themed army
5. Get a 10,000 steps average in per day over a week.

Well I've already beating my 1 post of 2019 for blogging, so the challenge is to beat my pathetic 14 posts of 2018. You gotta have at least one easy goal :-)

And my difficult goal is gonna be the 10000 steps as winter invades us here in NZ.

So for my Undead army I have tried out printing a Catapult,will see how it comes out tomorrow.





31 March 2020

The Graveyard

So last year I 3D printed and built a graveyard and started painting it, and like alot of projects it got put on hold and never got finished. So with the rise in enthusiasm again in modeling and painting and the my new goal of painting an Undead army for Warlords of Erehwon  I've now completed it.







 Next on the terrain build is going to be a few crypts I think.

29 March 2020

Boba Fett and a pile of plastic

On the 3D printer this morning I have Boba Fett. I've scaled him up from the original model off Thingverse to be about 25cm tall. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3806630



I also pulled out the box of miniatures from the last Reaper Bones Kickstarter this morning, just one or two hundred models. Think I should have enough models to make an undead / vampire style army for Warlords of Erewhon.


28 March 2020

Lockdown

Bloody Hell ... tis been more than a year since I last posted anything.

Now we (all of New Zealand) are in full lockdown with the COVID19 virus for the next four weeks, it must be time to do something about the lack of blogging. Not that I haven't been busy, the past week was a bit insane with working from home and trying to get my clients all setup so they too can work from their homes. I'm one of the lucky ones that can still work. Hard times for a lot of people out their.

So with the first weekend in official lockdown, one pulls out all those unfinished projects. I've been working from home for over a week already and had lined up a few projects to work on.

First up is a 3D print of Baby Yoda.. it's not a great print job, but good enough to get me back into some painting.

Second was a Baby Groot I also 3D printed last year and had been sitting on my desk taunting me for some paint for a very long time.

Not the greatest paint jobs, but a good start to get back into it and also sort out my painting desk. Now living in a small rental house my painting desk is a quarter of the size of my old setup, which is a whole nother saga.


Third on the list today was my newly created and again 3D printed measuring stick for Warhammer Man O-War. My chosen army of Slaanesh which was of course 3D printed needed some extra bling. So far just the base colours down and I realised I have the top Slaanesh symbol not centred correctly, so I'm gonna have to fix that up and reprint. But it gives me something to test paint


 Then 4th for today was the graveyard. No surprise its all 3D printed as well, with a few gravestones form a model pack and out of my bits box. I had made it up near the end of last year and its been siting around collecting dust. Now all the gravestones are in and I got grass down.



Weed, vines, leaves and tuffs of grass will go on tomorrow once all the glue dry's.


Keep Calm
Keep Safe
and 

Keep Painting

10 February 2019

A mixed bag.


It's been awhile, which is the way things are these days, to much to do and not enough time. Yesterday was my monthly pilgrimage out tot he  South Auckland Gaming club. Mark and I have been playing a lot of BattleTech of late so blasted out a couple of games with all our new terain we have been printing and designing.

The other guys were play a mix of Lord of the Rings and Congo and 15 mm Hail Cesar. So a real mix of bag of games which is great to see.

 A three way game of Congo looking awesome with Steven's 3D printed huts




Ian and Saul getting into 15mm Hail Cesar game
 

 The rest of the gang getting stuck into LOTR games.



While Mark and myself and a new comer (Matt I think it was) joined in on the Battletech. Mark using his newly resin printed Marik force up against my Nova Cat's.






Mark's King Crab off the resin printer looking awesome, the detail he's getting out of the resin is awesome... a little bit envious

The Nova Cat's light force list came out on top int he first game of capture the flag, and then I changed up to my heavy force in the second game a lost that just. Fun times.

 The terrain making/printing project has grown from a simple plan of wanting a full 8x4 table for Battletech of buildings and cityscape. To include a raised monorail I've designed and printed and now a raised motorway system with led lighting which is still in the design and prototype phase. here's a few of the concept ideas from a few back.




Noe off to see Alita: Battle Angel on the big IMAX screen tonight, so hoping to get some good ideas for more buildings and city stuff, along with enjoying what looks like a good movie from the trailers.



Fabic printing

  After some hit and missing printing onto the t-shirts I did some more research and ended up getting myself some Essdee fabric inks along w...