Input needed - Prone basing

Folks
My immediate plans when I first started this endeavour was to use 40mm round bases for prone figures.
However I've noticed that that does leave a lot of space around the figure.  I can make this look decorative on the base, but in the end it means that a given squad or section will take up more space that may be necessary and may look somewhat disjointed.
I am just not sure...
Below are a couple of pictures showing two prone figures on a 40mm round and a 20mmx40mm rectangular. Which do you think looks better?  Let me know in the comments!

Bases Arrive!

Yesterday my package of bases from Back-to-Base-ix arrived.
These are several hundred pieces of 3mm MDF in a range of sizes and shapes.

 Last night I sat down and liberated a sprue's worth of the RedBox Ikko Ikki from their plastic chains and stuck them down on 20mm round bases.  A nice fit I think. Tonight's plan is to texture the bases and hopefully undercoat tomorrow.

 Here is my plan for the WW2 figures:

• 20mm round for single figures.
• 40mm round for prone figures.
• 50mm round for weapons teams

Further steps

Today the parcel post guy arrived at the door with two packages.

One was some new larger trees from wehonest_cn on eBay (a great source of cheap trees) and also a package from AlwaysModel containing some RedBox Ikko-Ikki for Ronin.

I'm itching to get going; I just need those mdf bases to turn up and we can get this party started!

Tough Decisions

I've got some bases coming for my 20mm plastics and I can't wait to get them slapped on a base and start painting.
The cost of moving into a new scale (even when it's as cheap as 20mm plastic is) is going to be too much for the household budget at the moment, so I'm going to have to raise some additional cash to move things forward.
The only way to do this is by selling off some of the stuff I currently have and can't see a way to getting back around to any time soon.
So I'll be into the shed this weekend going through things and hopefully (?) posting some stuff for sale here on the blog next week.
It's bitter sweet...

I was wrong

I never thought I'd reach this place.
I have derided others who took this path.
I was wrong.
20mm ... plastics ... it's great but I still feel dirty......

Western Buildings

Tonight I put together the free demo building from the Hotz Stuff Whitewash City range at Wargame Vault. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  

I was looking at Wild West buildings to put together some Malifaux terrain.

I need to do some more paper terrain.  This was very quick and easy to put together and I love that there is really nothing more to do to get it on the table!.
I will base it properly at some stage I think.
There's a discount on the Hotz stuff at the moment, so I reckon that the Pioneer Set will be purchased later today!

Aspirational Goals

I don't normally do New Year's Resolutions, but this year I felt I should list some Aspirational Goals for the year.  I'm never going to be able to achieve all of these, but here's what I'd do if time (and money) was no object.  The below are in alphabetical order of ruleset.

7TV

I've always found the concept of this ruleset fascinating, and last year I picked them up in pdf on sale at Wargame Vault.
I'm keen to do these in 15mm mainly for space and cost, and luckily Khurasan have just released their 60s spy range!

Chain of Command 

The latest set from TooFatLardies.  I'm hoping to re-use my half-finished Flames of War figures from many years ago, as well as some 6mm.  The 6mm options will be more historical, but I'm wondering about doing some Achtung Cthulhu! inspired Weird War 2 as well.

Deadzone 

Since I Kickstarted it, I should probably play it.... :)
One of only two games I'll be playing in 28mm on this list.
A mate of mine also went in on this, so I have at least one other person to play it with.

Dux Britanniarum 

My Romano British army for Dux is complete, and my Saxons are based and just need painting.  Hope to get them both on the table this year.

Force on Force

I have enjoyed the FoF games I've played to date and I'd like to get some more in.  I have both 15mm and 6mm for this.  I'd like to get the 6mm finished up and on the table.  Initially I think I'd focus on the scenarios offered in the "Road to Baghdad" supplement that focuses on the early stages of the Allied engagement in Iraq.

Ghosts of Hefei

I kickstarted this and will be picking up both the Hefei book as well as the earlier "The Department" ruleset.  Gaming will be in 15mm, initially with the KS figures.
15mm cyberpunk - there's not enough of it in my opinion!

I Ain't Been Shot Mum

TooFatLardies Company Level ruleset.  I have a LOT of 6mm lead waiting to go on the table for this.  I really want to make a dent in this pile.
The focus here will be on Normandy.

Malifaux

A couple of years ago, my brother bought me a Malifaux starter box, but the figures are still in the box (and so are his!).
I recently picked up a copy of the V2 ruleset as part of a Black Friday sale.
This is a game we've been meaning to try for some time.

Mud and Blood

It's the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Great War.  I have had a copy of these rules from TooFatLardies for a couple of years, and have slowly been building a pile of unpainted 6mm lead to game them with.

Ronin

I got on the bandwagon and picked up this set from the Osprey Wargames range.  My intent is to fritter about in 6mm initially on these.

Sharpe Practice

Another ruleset I've had for a while that I want to get on the table.

First up is the "Wellington in India" period done in 6mm.

In addition, I've been hotly anticipating the Jolly Jack Tarr book from TooFatLardies and have some 6mm nautical types awaiting.

Wargods of Aegyptus / Olympus

I participated in the Crocodile Games Kickstarter last year for Wargods of Olympus.  As part of that I receive the rulebooks for all the Wargods product as pdfs.
True to form, I want to fritter around with these in 6mm to get a feel before I look at whether I need to "Go large!".



And that's it.  Much of this gaming (if it ever happens) will be solo, mainly because of my penchant for tiny figures and the difficulty matching up my time and those of my mates for a game.
Let's Go!

Random Modern Soviet Armour

Today is some random Soviet armour.
Again I was shopping for options for sci-fi vehicles and the majority of the items below are variants of the MT-LB platform.  They really didn't push my buttons like the BTR-80 variants, but the 2S6M Tunguska is going to be a bit of  a beast!

Heroics & Ros SM14 - MT-LB APC

Heroics & Ros SM13 - MT-LBu (ACRV) Command

Heroics & Ros SM43 - SA-13 Gopher (9A34 Strela 10)

The SA-13 launcher on top of the MT-LB is a separate piece of the model that I just dropped into the hole to take the picture.

Heroics & Ros SM65 - 2S6M Tunguska

The Tunguska is obviously in pieces.  When assembled I believe it will look something like this:

Victory Day Anniversary Parade Rehearsal, Tverskaya Street, Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2008.
Photo from Wikipedia taken by Leonid Dzhepko

H&R BTR-80

Right-o!
One of the MANY New Years Resolutions (more on that later) is to get more posts in this year.
To write more posts I need to do more hobby stuff, so it's actually a two-for-one package.
To assist me with that I had a couple of posts started before I went on hiatus, so it seemed like a good idea to get those finished first.

I've also given the blog itself a quick refresh, with a more modern template and a new banner.  Hope you like the changes.

But enough guff!
Here are the BTR-80 variants from Heroics and Ros.
I actually purchased these to use for some sci-fi vehicles, as I think the BTR-80A in particular with its turrent is quite "futuristic" looking.

Heroics & Ros SM66 - BTR-80

Heroics & Ros SM67 - BTR-80A + 30mm Turret

Heroics & Ros SM90 - BTR-80 UR Sn Command Vehicle

Next up, some more Russian armour from H&R...

Back again!

Hi all!
It has now been almost 14 months since my last blog post - the last year has been rather hectic!
We had the arrival of our third child (and first boy) at the start of September, Sebastian.

As a result of the new addition, in the lead-up (and also after the arrival of) we did a major renovation of our downstairs area to better accommodate visitors and the growing mountain of toys for the kids.  What was once an area open to the weather and vermin is now a lovely sealed, tiled and painted addition with an extra bathroom, two extra bedrooms and a big rumpus/lounge area.

I did manage to convince my wife that we needed a new shed to house all the stuff which had to come out of the house while the work was being done.  This will (eventually) be converted to a "man-cave" once everything is moved back into the house!

4.5m x 3m of shed-based love.  Note the roof is straight - it's just the camera angle!

On the hobby front I got very little actually done due to having downstairs packed up for most of the year, and even now all my wargaming stuff is still in the shed, and I can't really do anything on any of my old projects.

I have observed that a lot of the time when I finally find the time to get together with my mates for a game, we end up playing a quick pickup game like Munchkin, rather than anything elaborate on the tabletop.  So until the shed is done and I can present people with a multi-player scenario ready to go, I will only be wargaming solo.

Having made the connection though about what we do play when we get together, I've been hunting out card and board games that fit the bill.  As a result I actually got a couple of games of Dreadball and Super Dungeon Explore in, which we new purchases for the last year.

I also got on-board with my first Kickstarter projects this last year with the following:

• Achtung Cthulhu - Cthulhu Mythos Roleplaying game set during WW2.  Purchased for the background material to hopefully leverage into pulp WW2 wargames.
• Myth - Massive Fantasy Board Roleplaying Game with a lot of cool minis (28mm) and innovative mechanisms.  Really looking forward to this one.
• Ghosts of Hefei - Cyberpunk Tabletop skirmish set in a future chinese factory city.  I'll be playing using the 15mm figures.  My first Goalsystem game, so keen to see how it plays.
• Deadzone - I broke my cardinal rule about 28mm and bought into this 28mm sci-fi game from Mantic.  Currently cleaning and assembling the figures from the first shipment that arrived at Christmas.
• WarGods of Olympus - I've always been fascinated by the WarGods games, but I've never had a chance to play.  The KS offered the chance to pick up the new game and the old games (Aegyptus and the Wendigo book) as PDF.  The Artemis sculpt I received is wonderful, but I just couldn't justify further spend at 28mm.  I actually plan to give these rules a go in 6mm!
• Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed - purchased again as a background resource for some planned pulp-y mythos-y tabletop games in the future.
• Weird Wars Rome - Unspeakable Horror during the age of Rome.  Again a source of material to inspire some interesting "ancients" games. 

I also funded some board and card games for myself and a couple with an educational bent for the kids.  

The major KS spend however was an FDM 3D Printer - RigidBot.  Delayed by manufacturing issues in China, but hopefully here before the middle of the year.  The purpose here was two-fold.  I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was keen to try printing a variety of items for hobby purposes and around the house.  In addition though, I'm keen to see what the kids make of the technology and what they come up with as they grow up with access to this sort of technology.

Thanks for sticking with me through the hiatus.

There will be more regular updates soon.