Doings

Firstly, a big sorry to the online community for not replying to comments and making comments on other people's blogs. Life has been exceptionally busy recently. Today I am off work with a sore throat (If you are sick, stay at home) and in half an hour I'm off for the joy of a Covid test, which I have confidence will come back negative. New Zealand has done a great job with the pandemic, and aside from those returning home overseas (who are quarantined), we have no new cases being spread within the community. I'm proud of the way we've accomplished what we have, although it has come at an economic cost to our Tourism and Hospitality sectors. 

At any rate, that does give me half an hour to just capture some of the stuff that has been going on in my little hobby world.

First up, I played my first game of Star Wars Legion last Friday night. It went really well, and I have learned plenty. I lost, of course, but I've got a good idea now of how I could improve in the future and a lot of it comes down to simply knowing what different units can actually accomplish on the table.

The TTCombat buildings were built in the weekend. I'm still thinking about how to paint them.

I purchased the Battlekiwi boards for my Superhero gaming, and I am really pleased with them. Here they are above with their base coats sprayed on and the buildings I have in various states of getting ready. Throw in some cars and civilians, and imagine the park with greenery in it, and it will be a nice space to game on.

Painting has slowed right down. I finished the Shore-troopers and the Occupier tank for my Imperials, but nothing since. I can't see it getting any better over the next fortnight, although I hope I can fit in Craig's Tauntauns.

The Shoretroopers were painted with Sorastro's instructions

A mix of traditional techniques and contrast paints.

The Occupier tank is a beast on the table.

My most successful unit last Friday

I've been watching videos about Infamy, Infamy, the new Ancients ruleset by TooFatLardies, and I think I'm a convert from what I've seen of Rich's battle reports. I've always been a fan of the Lardies approach to history, but the games themselves have left me a little cold. A lot of that has been in the number of things I need to remember that leaders of different status can do. It's not a major obstacle, but one that has been counter-intuitive to a lot of the games I've played. I'm determined to stick it out this time, though, and I've preordered the rules and begun reorganising my Romans and Gauls. Who knows, maybe I'll pick up Dux Brittaniarum and Sharpe Practice too?

OK, better go and have my brains poked out.

Nate

First phase of commission complete

I'm pretty impressed with myself. I set this weekend as the due date to complete Craig's 15mm Flames of War Germans and I succeeded!

Support elements for the Heer forces that I completed a while back

Plenty of Panzerschreks in there.

The officers look suitably Teutonic

Those mortars are huge

And Germans aren't Germans without Hitler's buzzsaw.

Altogether 64 figures painted.
One of my students has a 3D printer, and he's been printing random things for my classroom this year. I asked him if he wanted to print me some triremes and I'd give him some money towards the plastic. The answer was yes and so far I've taken delivery of 12 triremes. Fantastic! I'm keen to get them painted up, so they are on the paint tray for tonight.
The other project that I'm working on right now is an upgraded cityscape for the Superheroes. I took advantage of Mighty Ape's Queen's Birthday Sale and now have a few TTCombat buildings to assemble. I also ordered an FLG City #1 mat to but it all on, but when it arrived I was really disappointed. The details were dark and blurry, not as crisp as they looked in the photo online. To their credit Mighty Ape have agreed to let me return it, so I can't complain at all about their customer service. As a result I cast around and discovered BattleKiwi's MDF urban boards. So I've ordered a 3' x 3' layout of them instead. Stay tuned, I aim to be playing a few Superhero games as soon as they are finished!

Nate

Dewback and Scouts

The latest figures to be finished are a Dewback and a unit of Imperial Scouts.

Great character in these models.

 I chose the rider with the modified Lewis gun in homage to my World War One obsession.

Once again I followed Sorastro's advice - wet blending followed by a wash.

The shading on the scouts is a bit too subtle in places. Some just look white.

The black is all Citadel Contrast Black Templar.

It took two evenings to get these guys painted, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Techniques like wet blending and using contrast paints are great fun.

Nate