The List - 2011 Fall 2012 winter Projects

OK so here we go:

1. EPIC - Well I muct say, painting some ultramarine on a sprue of original beaky Space Marines has been pretty fun and nostalgic. And the last few releases of models are just gorgeous. I had forgotten that. So I am gonna pick off EPIC as I go into the long night, to hopefully emerge from the shadows with a painted Space Marine, Orc and Eldar force. Imperial Guard may be too much to ask, but I have a bunch of it too. And that Damn Chaos and Squat stuff. Focus...Focus.

2. VIKINGS - I love my new collection of Vikings. I need to add some odds and ends to it, but its in really good shape. I will add some trolls (I have a nice selection of assorted old GW Trolls just for the job) Dire Wolves (I have a bunch of Plastics from GW kits), Valkyrie Leader (Maybe convert one of my unbuilt Bretonnian Pegasus Rider mounts), Hill Giant (Again GW plastic, beautiful), then probably figure out how to do some goblins, and press some Orcs into service as more trolls, ogres, and giant kin. Really going for a more Ragnaok-y kinda thing here.

3. SAMURAI - Love my sammies. Not painted great. From my old days when I was learning, but they look good together. and look even better now on group bases. Going to play Commands and Colors and Commands and Colors Fantasy and Hail Caesar with them. Need to do ground work, flock, static grass, etc. Then decide if I want to paint more of my Old Glory and L5R sammies, or go for it and do the Perry's stuff and stay historical. I am leaing toward the Perry's. I also have a nice selection of the L5R Goblins to add to the mix, so they are perfect for C&CF, beautifully sculpted too. And if you can get the Bob Ollie samurai orcs and goblins sculpts then you have added a pretty colorful army to the collection.

4. 15mm FANTASY - This is the ongoing project. Really need to do basing and flock for these guys to get them finished. Undead are on paint sticks already, and I have a great selection of Thain from Demonworld, so kinda anxious to get them painted as well.

5. 15mm NAPOLEONICS - A rebasing project. They look good rebased. And since I will never use them the way they are based, they need to be converted. Once rebased I can play Commands & Colors Napoleonics and Black Powder. This is a big project, just because of the sheer vilume of my exsting collection. But it will look good when done.

Gonna keep the list to 5 this time. But you all know me. I will certainly add to it. I am pretty sure I will come back to Post Aocalyptic when I am suffering some general malaise, I always do. And I have all my 15mm Sci Fi to do as well. And I have been thinking about doing some 15mm scale 2'x2' game boards for me and the boys to play on. Be fun to have some pull out boards to skirmish on in 15mm. Now I can get back to painting. Finally. 

An actuall gaming post.

Well, now that all that stylish blogger nonsense is out of the way, I did get a chance to finish my knights for Sir Percival, Icon Bearer of the King.

These pics are of the two current warbands I have done and the Kings cav unit.

I am a little torn about keeping these single skirmish mounted, cause they look really good on group bases. and could be used for Flower of Chivalry and Commands and Colors. What to do, what to do. the BAron recommends staying with singles, to skirmish/warband with, which was the original intent. But I sure would like to have these guys ready to fight my elves.

And the long slide down that slippery slippery slope starts....

Napoleonics, Nappies, call it what you will, men dressed in suits, lace, boots, and tall hats, shooting slow moving big balls of hot lead at each other across an idylic valley in europe. Im in! And by in I mean ALL IN!

Its as addictive as anything I know. And at times, I avoid it like the plague. It can be an all consuming force as a wargammer. And I was stricken by it 15 years ago. Thanks Al. I have:

6mm French - I bought these from Bacchus so I could model, in full ground scale, a French Infantry Battalion 1:1. And why not add enough cav for 1:1 regiments of cav.

15mm Everybody - My entry in to the whole mess. I now have full 15mm Armies, based for Age of Eagle/Napoleon's Battlles, for all major countries involved in the conflict. I don't have all of the Confederation or small Allies, but I can do almost any battle I want. French, British, Russian, Prussian, Austrian, Spanish.

28mm British, French, Spanish - And the current obsession, Penninsula, 28mm Foundry, mounted on rectangular bases, 4 figs. Phase I of the Brits are done, Working on Phase II now.

And so it starts. I know that if I start it ususally means at least a month or two working on them. I started on them this weekend. 2 units of Infantry, 1 British Guard Unit, 1 British Light Infantry. I have 4 more Line units ready to go, a unit of Hussars, and a couple of command.

As I read through the rules for Commnads and Colors: Napoleonics, I will be filling in painted units to match the units in the rules.

 

Quick list of X Mas goodies

Well it seems the old lead addict was pretty good(lucky) again this year. Santa brought me a bunch of goodies. a Quick List:

1. Commands and Colors Napoleonics - Box is nice and heavy. I will never use it as a block game, but need it for the rules, cards and dice. I love C&C.

2. C&C:Epic - The Epic expansion for C&C. It allows multi player play. Since we alsways have multi player, it works great. Can't wait til the multi player comes out for C&C Nappys.

3. Ground Zero Games Hi Mobility Wheeled Battle Force - Can't really afford to miss the xmas sale at GZG. This has become kinda a staple. I got the Grav force last year. And these guys help me field an NAC force of a good size for Future War Commander or Tomorrow's War.

4. Wargames Factory SciFi Troopers - I followed and participated in the discussions on the forum for these guys. They will make good stand in for WWW II Nazis and such. They are big guys with BFGs.

5. AT-43 at 60% off - While shopping I ducked into our only real wargamming shop in KC. They had AT-43 at 60% off. Just like tohe clearance sales a while back. So I picked up another unit of Kolossus walkers, a gig Red Block Walker, and a box of Oni walking time bomb zombies, who will be pressed into Neo Soviet service. So a good find. added some brushes and some static grass cause I was running low.

With what little free time I had between parties, I messed around with my AT-43 Red Block guys, trying to decide if they were total repaints, or just wash, highlight and play. It may be some of both. I washed a unit to see how the turned out and they look ok. A little skin painting, highlights and they would be just fine. Just not sure I like the tan and burnt orange paint scheme. Its distinct, but not necessarily the scheme I would have decided on for my Neo Soviets. But it sure would be nice to just have them all done. I may keep some and repaint others.

I cleaned and based a bunch of Undead 15mm guys for C&C:Fantasy. So they are ready to paint. Not inspired so I haven't painted them yet.

Flirted with painting a bunch of guys I have ready for Song of Drums and Shakos, but decided not to go there. Nappy's are a long fall down a deep well for me. Once I start it usually means I don't touch anything else for months. I am not ready for that right now. Especialy since Phase II of my 28mm Brits are sitting on their sticks ready to go and staring at me everytime I paint. It would be nice to add 2 more units of cav and 6 more units of infantry. If nothing else than I get to paint my Highlanders after Phase II is done. Kinda a reward for getting the majority of it done. See even in print I can feel myself getting sucked in. Once Phase II is done I can play C&C Nappy's with them. Until then I will play C&C NAppy's with my 15's. My miles and miles of 15's.

So I was digging for something to do yesterday when I had the whole afternoon, and found I wasn't really in the mood to paint. So I was digging through boxes and came across some oldies but goodies. Old Citadel Chaos Warriors. I have had these guys for eons. Back when I collected eveything that Citadel and Marauder made. So I began buidling them and getting them ready to paint. I cleaned them, cut off their tabs(sacrelidge), and based them on washers like all my single mounted figs. I hate GW slotta bases. I hate their height and what to do with the edge. I hate how unstable they are. Everything really. So I mount all singles I would use for skirmish or warband play on washers and Litko round bases. Then texture and finish. Works great and looks so much better. So I got 4 old Chaos Warior riders, 8 old Marauders, and 10 Warriors mounted, an old Chaos Minotaur,  as well as a newer Chaos Troll I picked up at a convention. I have another 10 warriors to mount. Then I need to add a box of Beastmen platics, or find some old ones on ebay. I love the old beastmen. It was fun. and this could lead me into finally painting some of the gorgeous Hudson and Allen buildings that I have had forever. I already have a Bretonnian/High Medieval warband that would be of comparable size. Would be a good song of Blades and Heroes battle or even a modified Pig Wars. I really would like a set of large warband sized rules for fantasy. Not WFB. But units of ten, heroes, monsters, etc.

I then played Fable II, which I picked up at Walmart on clearance. Fun roleplaying game. I like games where I can choose to be good, evil, neutral, and decide if I want to be a fighter, a shooter, or mage. Makes it fun. But I gotta not do that since it just cuts into my painting time and at least after painting I have a painted miniature.

Oh one last thing. Played C&C Fantasy at the BArons last week. Started tweaking the armies stats and such. It really is a pretty subtle game with an ability to model almost anything you want. So its gonna take some time to really think about the units, then model their attributes. That was the lessen for the day. That and Pegasus Riders should be able to flee or evade at will. That would be the whole reason to have them. Flying. Duh.

Have a great new years. I think the Baron is having everyone over on Wed. for a VSF slugfest. Should be fun as usual. Makes me want to paint my Minions of Abdul-ak-Abduhl's army. With his gold plated Parrot of Doom, and Giant Mechanical Desert Lizard of Doom with Howdah.

I really do like it all. Can you tell?

Its finished!

The Basement, Workshop, and Closet of Doom are complete! 8 months and its done. I have a really great basement for entertaining and gaming, a great workshop for painting and scratchbuilding, and more storage and access than I have ever had. My wife has been key to me getting this done. So I love you and thank you. She knows how to push me to finish. I'm a great starter. She helps me be a finisher.

I got finished getting my painting bench set up last night, so hopefully so long awaited pics will be taken.

I have decided to start again on my 28mm Nappies so I can be ready for Commands and Colors: Napoleonics when they come out. I am currently doing 6 units of British line and lights, and a unit of hussars. For the Penninsula of course. Next is my small but fun Spanish Army. Then probably some French.

Along the way I am going to do a few units for Cromson skies, and some WWI planes. And start work on my next 15mm sci fi army.

Oh and just cause I am insane, I had the Baron pick me up some 10mm Old Glory ECW to see what our units may look like on 60mm stands. Nothing beats a pike block that looks like a Pike Block.

also got a few packs of the new Blue Moon 15mm Sci fi. Curiousity got the better of me.

And a s a special treat. I got the 15mm Superheroes that they have too. Now I can do 15mm WWWII with supers and my 15mm WWII stuff I already have. Just need to add Gear Kreig gears.

Battle Lore!

BattleLore!

The Baron and I have been talking about doing a miniatures/tabletop version of BattleLore for some time. I have an obscenely big collection of 15mm Demonworld figs(I just delivered the whole Dwarf Army to the BAron last night for painting) and thay have just been sitting doing nothing for a long time. Only about 1/3 of them are painted.

So we decided to play Battle Lore, with 15mm fantasy, on the table top with 5" hexes, and 50mm x25mm infantry and 50mm x 50mm cav stands. # of figs per stand varies, but generally:

Hvy (RED)Inf - 6 figs

Reg (BLUE)Inf - 4-6 figs

Light Inf (GREEN)- 3-4 figs

Monster Inf - 1-3figs(or as fits and looks good)

Hvy Cav(RED) - 3-4 figs

Med Cav(BLUE) - 3 figs

Lt Cav/Small Flyers(Green) - 1-2 figs

Number of stands is:

RED Inf = 4

BLUE Inf=4

GREEN Inf = 3

All Cav = 3

Monsters =1-4

I just got what is painted of my wood elf and Orcs armies rebased on the fabulous Litko bases, and we were off to the races. We decided to playtest last night with waht we had. About 12 units a side, Myself, the Baron, and my youngest(7), Vs Scott(one of the Basement Generals), and the Baron's son(9), and my niddle son(10).

We used the hexless rules that were developed for Commands and Colors(sister to Battle Lore) and it worked fine. The Orcs won a very marginal victory. I llike the hexless system and I love the overall play of the C&C/BL system. Its by Richard Borg, and its a graceful, elegant, no rules lawyering, no munchining,no gamey BS is allowed kinda rules set. Simple, fun, with ehough tactical interest for us old grognards, and easy enough for 3 kids to play under the age of 10 and get it. 

I will say that all said and done, I prefer the hexes, so we have to make our own hex mat, but no sweat. I am really jonesing to keep painting these Demonworld guys, and its a tragedy that they are not avaolable anymore. BEtter than most 28mm fantasy lines. They are a joy to paint.

So as much as I decided to never paint another 15mm fig again, I am now painting Fantasy, Sci Fi(my new love), and will probably buy a couple of ancients armies to play C&C with. We are already talking about a straight medieval port of it. And the new Napoleonic set of C&C is coming soon as well. It sure is nice when you find a system you like.

BTW, I blatantly stole the BL banner above from the Battle Lore Master website. Go there if you have any interest in the game. And the Fantasy Flight Games site has all of the rules downloadable for FREE!  

More on this project as it progresses. Thanks to the Baron for hosting. As always, check out the BArons post on last night at: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2010/04/battlelore-wednesday.html