Week26 Updates

A bit more progress over the last few weeks, although I still am not getting out the brushes as often as I would like / need to.  The legionaries are finished up for the moment, pending completing their basing and a matt coat.

I have moved on to some skirmish options for the Romans in Infamy Infamy, using some Strelets figures from M037 Roman Velites.  First up are some javelin equipped skirmishers, which appear to be the Velites named in the set.  I believe these are probably anachronistic by the time of the Cesarean legions, but I figured I would paint the up and possibly still use them.

Item	Colour
Helmet and Shield Boss	VMC 70.998 Bronze
Wolf Pelt	VMC 70.869 Basalt Grey with a drop of black Drybrush with 50/50 Basalt Grey and VMC 70.837 Pale Sand
Flesh	VMC 70.845 Sunny Skin Tone
Tunic	VMC 70.837 Pale Sand
Mail and Javelin tips	VMC 70.997 Silver
Scabbard, straps and boots	VMC 70.871 Leather Brown
Sword Hilt	VMC 70.818 Red Leather
Javelin Shaft and Inner Shield	VMC 70.843 Cork Brown
Shield Face	VMC 70.817 Scarlet / VMC 70.841 Andrea Blue / VMC 70.970 Deep Green

Next up are some slingers from the same Strelets M037 set.  These will defintely get some use accompanying the legions.

Item	Colour
Hair	VMC 70.950 Black
Cloak	VMC 70.829 Amaranth Red (my bottle of this is quite runny, to the point where it need to leave it on wet pallet overnight to get it to a consistency where it provides any coverage) VMC 70.998 Bronze for the cloak pin
Flesh	VMC 70.860 Medium Skin Tone
Tunic	VMC 70.837 Pale Sand
Breaches	VMC 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform / VMC 70.821 German Cam Beige / VMC 70.819 Iraqi Sand
Scabbard, Sling and boots	VMC 70.871 Leather Brown
Sword Hilt	VMC 70.818 Red Leather
Shot	VMC 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform
Shot Bag	VMC 70.821 German Cam Beige
Inner Shield	VMC 70.843 Cork Brown
Shield Face	VMC 70.841 Andrea Blue / VMC 70.970 Deep Green

And this is the overall progress in the Roman Legion Box to date.  The Slingers and Velites still need their dip to get up to the same stage as the legionaries, but I am holding off to do them in a batch with the next lot of troops......

...which are eastern style archers also from the same Strelets Roman Velites set.  Hopefully I'll get them knocked over this week and get them dipped and we can move on to finishing up the basing.

 

2023 Week 19

 Still trying to find time to finish up these.  

2023 Week 12

 Going to see if I can get back into the swing of this after such a long absence.

Aim is to try to paint more this year so I’m going to post some weekly progress to keep myself on track.

Tonight I applied some “goop” to the bases of a mixed batch of Hat and Strelets Roman figures.  

These are command and final legionary troops for some Romans I’m putting together for Infamy Infamy.

Here’s what has already been blocked in over the last 6 months of my glacial painting speed, and also what needs to be completed.

Irregular 6mm Chinese

A question came up on the ColonialWars Yahoo Group about 6mm Chinese troops for the period.  As luck would have it, I happened to have one of the Irregular 6mm army pack of Imperial Chinese that I picked up on a whim on eBay a few years ago.  However I found that some ants or other bugs had nested in the box I have them in.  It took a while to get them cleaned up, and you can still see some discolouration in the photos below.

First the Z38 Imperial Chinese Infantry.  These make up the bulk of the army pack that I have, with 3 units each consisting of a command base (with the flag below) and 7 regular infantry bases.

The next picture if of the cavalry in the pack.  I assume these are the Z41 Manchu Light Cavalry. There are 4 bases of these in the pack I have.  There is also a foot command base.  I’m not sure what code this is.

Finally the Z39 Imperial Chinese Tigermen.  There are two units of these in the pack, each consisting of a command base and 5 regular infantry bases.

None of the Z40 Imperial Chinese Artillery appear here unfortunately.

A long overdue update

August 2015 was the last time I posted here.... almost 3 years ago!
I finally got the shed to the point (after 4 years!) where everything could be moved into it back at the start of this year.  The layout has continued to evolve, but here are some pictures from the end of my Christmas break after the final push to finally get the pile of boxes out of the spare room in the house and into the shed so that we could accommodate some visiting relatives.

Unfortunately, I managed to get it to a point of near completion a couple of weeks before a massive spike in work that has me travelling a lot.  If only it had an accompanying spike in pay!

One of the big things that I am happiest about though is being able to have a space where I can leave my printer set up.  I haven't had much of a chance over the last 3+ years to set it up and tune it to where I'd like it.  I still don't have the time to get it tuned in properly at the moment, but having the space means I can let it run on jobs without disturbing the house or risking enquiring little fingers.

Before I took off on this most recent trip, I printed one of the ruined houses from 3d-print-terrain's Normandy Range.  This company is the result Jens from Najelwitz Modellbau moving from resin terrain to 3d files.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.  It's scaled for 1:72 / 20mm.

I'll need to try to get some paint on it over the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures taken of the rubble piles and ruined internal level that are part of it. 

I'd like to hope that I blog a bit more in the coming months - we'll see....

StuG IV puzzle models

I ordered a Panther and a StuG IV model from eBay recently.
There are 1:71 scale 4D puzzle models that just clip together.
Unfortunately I received two StuG's instead of the Panther, so the Panther is still coming.

I like that they have some paint on them already, but it doesn't really match any of the camouflage patterns you see and they need some decals. 
So not quite table-ready, but better than bare plastic, and very quick to assemble!

Delivery Saga

This turned up today. 

Still no copy of the game though. Apparently it starts shipping locally in Australia the week after next.

Fairytale Games figures

Just some quick pictures of the figures from the Fairytale Games Kickstarter.
These are "30m" figures, definitely larger than the Mantic figures I've been showing over the last couple of days.  They are all nicely done.
I'm hopeful that they are probably a scale match for my Confrontation pre-paints.

Apologies for the blurry pics as I didn't want to go through the rigmarole of removing the shrink wrap at the moment, as I need to store them until I sort out my hobby space (more on that soon).

As always, clicking on the images should get you a larger version of the picture.

Dungeon Saga - Black Fortress contents

And finally the contents of the Black Fortress box I picked up as part of the Dungeon Saga Kickstarter.

No figures this time, as Black Fortress is simply a terrain expansion.
As you can see, it's a block of tiles, plus the doors and furniture in 4 bags.  Unlike the scenario expansions (Warlord of Galahir, and Infernal Crypts), the furniture is in resealable bags, which is handy.
Not pictured is the second bag of tile clips I received.

First up, the furniture proper.  As you can see there is a well, two  bookshelves, a lectern and separate book, a rack of weapons, a dias of some sort and a coffin. 

 The interesting thing about these is that they are cast from a soft rubbery plastic, similar to some that I've seen used for 1:72 scale plastic figures.  They are not a hard plastic.
Next up we have 4 barrels, 4 chests with separate lids and two tables.  Again, these are in a soft, rubbery plastic.

 

Finally we come to the doors.  There are two each of 5 different types pictured below.  Unlike the other furniture, these are cast in a hard plastic.

I didn't pick up the Tyrant of Halpi expansion because :

1. Dragons are rather silly
2. I didn't feel it provided value for the money (probably influenced be the first point)

Well that wraps it up for Dungeon Saga; at least until the actual game turns up some time next month!

Dungeon Saga Infernal Crypts contents

Time for the Infernal Crypts contents.
Basically everything was identical in many aspects to Warlord of Galahir (WG).
Unlike WG, the tiles, booklet and playsheets were all shrinkwrapped in a single bundle in my copy of Infernal Crypts.

Once again there were 3 bags of minis, two of abyssals in red plastic and one containing the figure of Drech'Nok in grey plastic, plus the card deck.

Once again we have two copies of 9 unique sculpts, plus the Drech'Nok figure.
No broken figures this time, although the Drech'Nok figure is a little underwhelming.  He's not as imposing as I would have thought, and with his wings and being positioned on the rear of his base, he has a lot of trouble staying standing up.  I may need to rebase him, or weight the base somehow.

I also had a bag of tile clips (for keeping the scenery tiles secure) in this box for some reason, along with a second bag in the Black Fortress box.  Not sure if this is standard or not.

RIP Larry Brom

I read this morning on the Sword and the Flame Yahoo Group the sad news that Larry Brom recently passed suddenly from a heart attack.

An former US Marine, Larry was the author of the very popular The Sword and The Flame rule set, amongst many others.  He had a wide reaching impact on the community and will be sorely missed.

My condolences to Lori and Christy, and the rest of the Brom family.

It was reports and images of Sword and Flame games on the Major General site that was a big factor in steering me from sci-fi/fantasy to historical war gaming.

Once the shed is done, a memorial TSATF game will definitely be in order.

If you've never encountered the rules, they are definitely worth a look. They differ from many rule sets in running from a standard deck of playing cards, which adds a nice friction element. You can pick up a copy from Sergeants3.

Dungeon Saga - Warlord of Galahir contents

Just some quick picures of what's inside the Dungeon Saga Expansions that I received as part of the Dungeon Saga Kickstarter.
I don't have the base game yet, due to the way that Mantic are shipping for this project.  I expect it will get to me just prior to Christmas.

So inside the box there was the booklet with the scenarios, the tile pack for the scenarios, play sheets for characters and the Overlord, a deck of cards and 3 bags of models.

 These were two bags of orcs in green plastic and the 3rd was a single figure in grey who I assume is Thrundak.  Apologies for the blurry camera phone image below.  Basically it's two figures each of nine different figures, plus Thrundak.

In the foreground you can see one of my Orc Skulks who became detatched from his base during transit.  A quick dab of glue will rectify this.

Kickstarter Deliveries

I've been  sick for the last fortnight (including a hospital visit) with pneumonia, brought on by excessive hours at work.  While I've been recuperating, two packages arrived.

The first was the first thing I've seen from the Fairytale Games Kickstarter from mid 2013. This was a card game that was massively over successful at Kickstarter and the team involved have struggled to deliver with the pressure of such a large success.   I don't have the actual game yet, but these are the 40 miniatures that were funded as a stretch goal.

Also arriving was a package from Mantic.  These are the expansions to Dungeon Saga that I pledged for.  Unfortunately the main game is still about a month away off the coast of China. 

 
Mantic have done some funny things with this project and there appears to have been a number of errors in printing and shipping that I haven't seen with their previous efforts. I pulled out of the recent Warpath KS and I think that was the right call.  I'm far more interested in what M&M refer to as "Boutique Games" now anyway.  Large scale fantasy/sci-fi is of limited appeal.  I still have to paint my Deadzone figures anyway!

I'll provide some more detail on these in some future posts.

On the subject of Kickstarters, there are a number running at the moment that I'd love to be a part of, but funds are too tight.
If you do have some spare change, check out the following:

• Panzerfauste : A revival of the old Wessex Games fantasy WW2 universe.  I've been waiting for this for about a decade, but the current UK-AU exchange rate makes this one way too hefty for me.  I'll have to try to pick up some at retail in the future. Some great models - the British Orcs are my favourites.
• Super Dungeon Explore Legends : more chibi dungeon delving goodness.  Very impressed with my experience from dealing with this team on Forgotten King. I think  will be pledging for this as well - my kids love these figures.
• Scythe - fantastic looking game based on the alternate interwar art of Jakub Rozalski.  Just too expensive unfortunately.  I may look to pick up the art book in the future.  I'd love to play a proper tabletop game in this setting.

Printing....

A little bit a 3D printer action.

First up a Nashorn in 15mm for my brother. The supports for the gun didn't print, so that's a bit wonky looking, and the model as a whole needs a proper clean up. Not too bad though...

Next up is a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure I'm happy with them 100% at the moment, but here are some 2mm infantry for a possible Gallipoli anniversary game, or two...

And up close (using my phone so the pics are all rubbish).

Kickstarter Deliveries

When the parcel man came to the door this morning it was quite an unexpected haul that I ended up with:

• The first shipment of the Forgotten King  Super Dungeon Explore Kickstarter, and

• my copy of O-umajirushi, a translation of a 17th century japanese heraldry text that I also supported on Kickstarter.

Two ends of the spectrum, both with a japanese influence!

A gentle stirring....

Blurry picture, but the first hobby activity for a VERY long time.

Germans under coated to Field Grey, vehicles in Bolt Action Dunkelgelb. And the first stages of a Cafe Gondree I bought on eBay.

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!