A welcome package from Minibits

I always love getting aa package in the mail. Especially if its got a customs declaration on it. That can only mean one of two things. Rum or TOYS!!!!

Its too small for rum so its gotta be toys. Fun little things from Minibits. I just had to solve my hits record keeping problem for Black Powder. These dice frames and dice allow me to do a scenic base and record hits with a dice in the frame. A handy little solution. I got Red for British, Blue for French, Yellow for Spanish, and White and Black for extras (probably Portugese).

I wish the frames were a little thicker. they are very thin. If you stack two on each one, they look better. But I can live with the thin ones.

Quick Sketchup of Dice Frame on 40mm base. The base will then have casualties, shakos, fallen muskets, broken wheels, textured base and such.

A Little Gift For a Friend - Dystopian Wars Prussians

When stumped for a gift for my Brother In Law, I usually turn to painting figs for him. After the Baron, he has been the most influential gamer in my life. And one could argue, that since I met and married my wife after being introduced to her by him, he has been one of the most influential people in my life over the last 20 years. He reignited the fires of gaming when I had all but walked away as well. So I always find it rewarding to give him painted minis for Xmas.

So I bought some Dystopian Prussians (he is a Teuton through and through) and since he had not dipped his toes in that ever deepening pool, I thought I would entice him a little. Here's some pics:



Fleet Carrier. Really wish I would have had a pointed Iron Cross decal. This one is from a Fokker DVII kit I had laying around. Its a little too WWII for me.



Carrier Escorts

Tiny Flyers

the Beginnings of a nice Carrier Group

He seemed to like them. I really enjoyed the painting and I could really crank out a fleet. I have pieces of a Japanese Blazing Sun Fleet together, but need to get the rest put together. But these were fun. And I really enjoyed the flyers. Fun little sculpts, even though I hate the rediculous bases they are on. Why would you put a metal girder structure around flying models? Why not make them singles? One of the crazy Basement Generals hated them so much he cut all of them off with a jewelers saw so they could be mounted on flying bases. Bad choice Spartan, after so many good ones. Anyway, this really helped me decide where I was gonna spend my xmas money. Dystopian rules and figs, as well as Firestorm Armada rules, to go with the Albion Triumphant rules for Black Powder. Gonna be a fun year in the Workshop of Doom.

Merry Happy to all, and to all a good Haul!

Hope all of you who celebrate the holidays have done so, survived, and enjoyed. So first to all my fine readers, I wish you all health, wealth, happiness, and TOYS!!!!!!!

Time for the annual haul report on toys that the Queen hath bestowed on me(even if I doth give her a handy linked list):

First from the good folks at GZG:

The two Aliens Mercs sets. These would go with my already painted Alien Mercs Sets for needed back up against the Human Hordes. Or they would I deal to use for Space Orcs for In The Emperors Name. I am torn. Good thing I am not painting them soon. But I love them.

I have lusted after this set since it was released. These shacks are awesome. I need to add a couple of the full size buildings and I have a nice ruff town for anything 15mm scifi.

Ahh Drones. I love them. I finally got to add the spider drones to my collection. They will be squad support drones for my Aquan Hegemony troops. Who are first on the list for painting after the Spanish are completed...maybe.

Next up is buidlings from Proxie Models. I got a nice mixture of their ruined buidlings, and generic sci fi buildings to further flesh out my 15mm games. I envision the ruins being used for Fallout style games, and the Sci Fi buildings for my Colony I am building(in my mind at least). Great m,odels that are not done very good justice by the pics on their website. If you want to see the potential of these models go to Spacejackers site(scroll down and look at his poto roll on the right side). What he is doing is amazing and really shows the potential of these very nicely done terrain pieces done by a one man shop. I have been very inspired by his work to pick these up.

Finally, the 1920's Eldrict Horror pulp rules set - Strange Aeons. I love the era, I love the literature, and I even built a few places of power for terrain. It should be a nice diversion and not much to paint.

I did get Farcry 3. It should be a real time eater. SO I want to get some painting done before I fall down that rabbit hole.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Much love, friendship, and good wishes to all my friends(cyber and otherwise) for the coming year.

Update- Spanish Napoleonics, Dystopian Wars, and Firestorm Armada?

Well kind readers, its been a bit since an update. I posted a quick one on Albion Triumphant for Black Powder, and that's been about it. We have had some family tragedy with the loss of my father in law. He was a great man. I was lucky to have known him. He was a father to me. And will be greatly missed.

So not much mood for frivolity and the fun things that seem so minor when the big stuff in your life happen.

But one thing this hobby can give us is a release, a place to go hide and enjoy the simple pleasure of painting, or terrain building or even gaming with your friends. So as minor as this may all be, its a nice place to call home too.

So as far as the Workshop of Doom and progress goes, not a lot has been done. I have a nice series of long weekends coming up for xmas and new years so in between the family stuff, and a great friend daytrip to a stellar BBQ joint, I hope I can carve away some real time and paint.

Spanish Nappies - I finished the 1811/12 militia uint. They look good. Pics of the whole Spanish Infantry when they are all done. That's 4 of 5 units complete. I have one infantry unit to complete. Plus one stand of grenaiders. This would give me four units of line, and one militia, plus one converged grenaider unit(pull the grenadier stands from each line unit. I got the horse flesh completed on my first Dragoon Unit. Numancia of course. So maybe, just maybe, by the end of break, I will be done with my Spanish Army. (1 line unit, 1 grenadier stand, 2 dragoon units, 2 cannon, and  4 commanders left to paint). Once they are done, I am going to do all the stand base work for both the Spanish and the British, so they will be ready to play. Then - START ON THE FRENCH.

It must have been hard riding around looking like a banana!

Dystopian Wars - Gonna paint a couple units for someone on my xmas list. Maybe entice him to play, or just paint something different. Should be fun. Gotta get it done before xmas. The clock starts now!

Firestorm Armada - Seriously thinking of buying a couple of fleets and the new rules and campaign book with my xmas money. I love spaceship combat. and this is a great line. I have a couple of tubs of vairous stuff from othe rmanufacturers that I play Full Thrust with, but would be willing to try this.



That's a pretty sexy looking fleet.



Yeah for Black Bowder! - Albion Triumphant

Warlord has released their Black Powder army book for the Pennisula - Albion Triumphant!

They are including that dashing Guards Color Guard figure if you order from Warlord. At $29.00 for the whole Pennisula Campaign, it's well worth it for me to get, obviously. and since I have my Brits done, and my Spanish in the home stretch and my French in the blocks, it couldn't come at a better time. Huzzah!

Ok I Lied

To you and myself. I had a 3 hr painting slot this weekend, and I filled it with...that Spanish Militia I said I didn't want to paint. And I don't think I'm gonna start any 15mm until I finish up the Spanish. I got about half done with the unit. I was flying too. I have belts, highlights on faces, hats and boxes, and finally muskets to finish.

This unit is a militia unit from 1811 that was issued dark blue trousers and coats, but no shakos, so they used their own local bell topped hats. And cheap muskets. A transitional uniform before the full British refit of the Army. It has red cuffs, white turnbacks and black hats. Should be a nice contrast to the white uniforms of the 1808 line infantry and the yellows of the Dragoons.

Since these guys were going so fast I got the Dragoons faces painted and inked at the same time. Soon canary jacketed horsemen, soon.

Sci Fi Corridor Tiles - some progress

When last I left this project, I had done some layouts and cut my pink foam, but had not glued anything down. Well, I got a couple of hours last night and I didn't feel like painting 1811 Spanish Militia, so I broke them out and glued them down and made some more. I'm just kinda winging this one and already its presenting some problems.

Becasue of the Industrial Edge tiles I am using, I have introduced 1/2 tiles into the way I normally would do a Hirst Arts Tile project. So its taking some getting use to. I fear I will need to make some 1-1/2 width corridors to make sure I can fill gaps that are occuring when I introduce T intersections and L corners.

But overall I am pleased with the progress.

I now have 2 big rooms (6x6), a long corridor(6x2), short corridors (3x2), L corner, 4 way intersection, and dead end or spawn point. All told 9 pieces ais a nice start. I need about 20 to play a game on. I need a couple more rooms, a coupl emore spawn/dead ends, a couple o f corners, straight halls and a t intersection. That's probably about a full day of casting to get that far..

I need to pour some more tiles and industrial edge tiles. ButI am making due with what I have poured already. I actually like the chaos of trying to put some of these pieces that are clearly meant to go vertical in as horizontal walls. Fun.

Hirst Arts. Always a fun time. I will probably make what I can from what I have and base coat them. Don't know that I will completely finish the first phase of them yet. I think then either some 15mm Fantasy or Sci Fi. Maybe take a break from Nappies for a bit. Pics have 15mm figs on the tiles. Blue Moon and Khurusan and GZG models respectively. I think the tiles look great with 15mm figs on them. Nice and spacious. Plenty of room for tactical movemnt and fire team play. Add in some Khurusan 15mm scale furniture and consloes and stuff for the rooms. And that could be fun.

The tiles work with 28mm too. Here's an older pic with some Necromunda guys on it to show scale:

And one last shot of the Workshop of Doom's only clear space. About half a cutting mat worth. You can see it littered with some of the Hirst Arts Sci Fi molds I have poured up, pink foam blanks I have already cut for tiles, and the best hobby glue ever made - Aleen's Tacky Glue. If you don't use this stuff for terrain projects you must be crazy.

Spanish Napoleonic Update

OK here's a quick non-pic update on the progress of the Spanish over the weekend.

I now have 3 completed Line Infantry units at full strength (6 stands). Each unit is 4 line, 1 commnad, 1 grenadier. I also have a Grenadier command stand completed. So, once I finish 1 more Grenadier stands, I will have the ability to put together a converged grenadier unit from the line units.

I have a transitional period line unit ready to be started next. After that, I will finish the last Line Infantry unit.

So when done, looks like it will be:

5 Line Infantry

1 Converged Grenadier

3 Cannon

2 Cavalry(Dragoon-Guard)

2 Division Officers

1 Army Officer

That's a nice little brigade that will need to loose 6 units to be broken. Or they can be added to the Thin Red Line to bolster their lines.

I would like to buy a light infantry unit, but that will probably be something I come back to when I hit round 2 on each army (British (highlanders and KGL) Spanish Lights, etc).

After that, Here come the French.

Update - 11-22-12

Here's a quick update on the goings on in the Workshop of Doom:

I have two units, plus 2 stands of Spanish Line Infantry for my Nappy Spanish Project on the table. One unit is base painted, the second unit is 3hours from completion. Once these two units are done, I will have 4 Line Units ready to go, which I can pull out a Grenadier stand from each unit to make a Converged Grenadier unit. Yeah. that's 5 Units, hopefully completed by the end of Thanksgiving Break. After that, I need to do a large Militia unit (8 stands), and the Spanish Infantry will be done. The Spanish Artillery is done. Then its 2 Dragoon Units and the Spanish Army is complete.

We had a great playtest of Gruntz the other day, so I think 15mm Sci Fi is gonna move up the list.I need to Finish the Humanist QRF(CMG Recon Infantry, GZG Hi Wheeled Mobility Vehicles, DP9 Mechs) Vehicles so I can move on and Finish my Garn (Khurusan, GW).

I am on the verge of Pulling the Trigger on painting my 15mm Fantasy Undead Army for Hail Caesar! But it's kinda either that or 15mm Sci Fi. Right now Sci Fi wins cause I think GRuntz is really workable for the group and me. But all I will have to do is pull out the blisters and away I'll go.

Contemplating what my next Side-Side Project is (there's always one). With Nappy's and 15mm Sci Fi going strong, I will need to take a break I am sure. So the leading contenders are Pulp Eldritch Horror(a little Cthulhu action), Some Fantasy Chaos Warband stuff (old Marauder and Citadel lead) to fight the Brettonians and Undead warbands, Or maybe some Epic units. Side-Sides are just for breaking the tedium of big projects that really don't have an end point.

I printed out the Dropzone Commander free downloadable buildings. They are great. Expect some quick cobbled together goodness for my Mechwarrior Repaints for Robofire!

Enjoy the long weekend and keep painting!

Blog Formats, Type Styles, and Colors

There was a simple discussion on TMP that has spread to several of the blogs that I read, and that applies to me and the LA blog. It was about a black background with white or light type. How horrible they are to read, and how much they hurt the eyes. And there was much grousing(as usual for the grumpy grognards on TMP) about only children and the GW fanbois who love their black and skullz do their blogs that way, how unprofessional and what a basic mistake it is from a design sense. Etc. 

So here are a few thoughts.

I don't write code. I am not illiterate, but I use blogger so I can blog, not deal with learning sioftware and computer languages so I can make it exactly what I want. I live with what looks good to me. 

Pics are eveything. If you are reading my words, well then I am just damn flattered you bothered to spend the time. And pics look best on a black or grey background. Period. even marginal pics look ten times better on a black or neutral background.

I have a feeling some of this is about the aging of the gaming base in general. Us old farts eyes don't work like they used to. YES its easier to read dark on white. But after a while (like 40 hours a week), it feels like a flashlight is being shined at my face. So a dark background is ok for a gaming blog cause everything else I do on my computer is black on white.

And just like all the idiots during the election, I am so tired of generalities, sweeping statements that classify whole categories of people, and general BS of people who don't like specifically what you are doing, when you couldn't give a crap in the first place. So shut up about the Skullz and 40k and go grind your anti-Evil Empire axe somewhere else so the adults can talk about stuff. I know of three highly thought of and non FanBoi blogs that have given reasoned and rational thought about this issue. Imagine that.