My Wargaming Week 11

Managed to get a dozen figures painted for Geoff this week. These are Mutton Chop Early War British. Really nice figures, with quite fine detail:

 Geoff bought the AK Interactive British WWI Uniform triad and sent it through for me to try. I have to say that I'm really pleased with the resulting colour. I felt that the final highlight colour was too stark a contrast with the other shads, being too tan for my liking, so I ended up mixing it with the base shade. It has neat that some of the definition is lost, but I think it looks more realistic.

I e-mailed Geoff and admitted that I was too scared to try and paint eyes on these figures, but then I plucked up the courage and did so this morning. They are barely noticeable, but they are there!

I also managed to get a couple of Heroclix repaints in. Below are Nuclein and Compost:

Wham! Take that Compost!

And here's are the 20+ year old design sketch of Compost:

He's built out of a combo of Man-Thing and Swamp-Thing:

Man-Thing with Swamp-Thing's head - incredibly easy conversion for one of my favourite baddies! The Prince of Putrescence was actually born at about the same time as Nuclein, who has here been made out of Ace from the Royal Flush Gang:

I knew what he would be as soon as I spotted the model!

My first ever drawing of Nuclein. If the pose looks vaguely familiar it is because it was copied off Todd MacFarlane's picture of the Hulk from the Handbook to the Marvel Universe update '88. No-one drew the Hulk as good as MacFarlane, before or since. You may disagree, but I'm entitled to my opinion because it's right.

This week I have some Samurai to paint for Geoff, and then I think I'll do the last dozen figures that he sent through. Then Craig's Japanese tanks. At the same time I am going to try and squeeze in a few more heroes and villains. Although Nuclein was originally designed a s a member of Delta Wave, he is actually going to be part of the Protectorate with Hoplite, Stormchild and, yes, a new Aura!

Nate

My Wargaming Week 10

For the second week in a row I've ended up having to have time off work, and off painting! The gastro bug had no sooner passed than I got a cold that managed to remove my voice. It is really hard to teach when you can't talk, although I did try!
Anyway, I did manage to get some stuff finished. First up:

A dozen German dragoons for John's WWI armies.

A bit of a close up with the officers

And the troopers. All of these guys were painted to 'high wargaming' standard to fit with the existing collection - that is with 2 tones of paint and some ink washes.

I did some painting for myself as well. This is The King, or as I like to call him, Evil Elvis - he's a gang leader and one of Captain Kiwi's bad guys.

Speaking of the Captain - he had a make-over. He is no longer looking at the sky and he now has some clubs to beat people around with. Just like Daredevil, except he has a utility belt like Batman. He could be called Bat-Devil. Except he has a Kiwi  emblem on his chest. Whatever - he's kick-ass! Watch out Evil Elvis.

 In other news, My collection of Practical Wargamer magazines nears completion with the arrival of these five from Caliver Books. I only need a few more issues and I'll have the whole set, but if Caliver doesn't have them in stock, who would?

1993 is completed!

In the same parcel, a Zvezda Lee for my 1944 14th Army turned up. I only ordered one to see what it would be like. It is simply the best Zvezda tank I've ever put together. Recommended!

And 3 Battlefront Honey Stuarts for the Japanese. I had to order a whole box of five, but I only need 3. The Japanese tank commander was kindly donated by Craig.

 I also lost a machine gun from my Japanese MG platoon. I picked up the element and forgot that it wasn't glued down. The Machine Gun fell off and after pulling out the stuff in the cupboards and searching all around, I think it went down the inside of a metal pipe which is bolted to the floor. I emailed Battlefront about a replacement, but they don't have any in stock, so if anyone out there has a spare 15mm Japanese MG, or knows a good place to buy one, please let me know.

The Punic Wars DBA armies arrived back, in exchange for painting John's cavalry.

Also showing up today, an order of random Heroclix figures from Troll and Toad. The figures on the bottom right will join the Marvel/DC collections; the figures at back right will join the random civilians that are kidnapped/rescued/endangered in scenarios; and the figures on the left are for conversions into NDC characters (that stands for Nate Dan Comics).

My time off has given me plenty of time for reflection, and I've come to the conclusion that less is certainly more. As a bit of a Wargames Butterfly I've looked at dabbling here and there, and rules like DBA and One Hour Wargames only encourage this. But I've been reading through the old Practical Wargamer Magazines and decided that maybe what I really want is to do a few periods and do them well. To that end, I've narrowed down my wargaming focus to the following periods/games:

1. Punic Wars, using Big Battle DBA.
2. The Great Northern War using an adaptation of Neil Thomas' Introduction to Wargaming rules for Pike and Shot. (I can still pull out a few units for OHW games as well). It will have about 15 - 20 units a side.
3. The French and Indian War using Muskets and Tomahawks. The only historical period in 28mm. This is the project where I want to spend lots of time on making the figures and terrain pretty.
4. World War I using the rules featured here for 1914, and Flames of War for 1918.
5. World War II using Flames of War - both the Eastern Front mid war and Pacific.
6. Superheroes using Clobberin' Time.

For most of these periods, I actually need to buy more figures, but not a huge deal more. If I can focus, the goal is to have them all painted and ready for the end of next year.

Nate

My Wargaming Week 9

This week has not featured any new packages arriving on the doorstep, unfortunately. It has involved some solid painting, a bad bug, and the first play of Clobberin' Time with Delta Wave.

The bug at the beginning of the week was awful, and I am not alone in having contracted it. It seems to have passed now, and I was able to catch up on my painting (by and large thanks to ignoring my job). Craig needs these figures and guns for NICon, so I was in a hurry to get them complete for him:

I enjoyed painting that lot.
Today I found a few minutes of garage time and put together some 1/144 planes that geoff sent me for my Pacific War project:

I haven't put all the decals on yet. I have to say, I've always loved the look of the P-38. Now, where is Yamamoto?
I also took advantage of some blue skies this morning to undercoat the 1588 figures. yes, 1588 - remember that from late last year? It started with a hiss and a roar, but fizzled when I decided that this would be accumulation year. Still, there might be a week when I just feel like something different to paint...

Finally, a shot of the painting tray for the upcoming week. I have a dozen Renegade German cavalry to do for john, and if I get the chance, I'm going to slip the last unit of Great Nortehrn War Russian infantry in there somewhere.

After that, I have some WWI British to paint for Geoff that will be interrupted by some mortars that Craig also needs painted, before painting some more Samurai for Geoff. And somewhere in there I will have to mark mid-year exams. Well, it keeps the winter's evenings busy!

Nate

My Wargaming Week 8

I managed to pick up some sort of gastro-bug this week, and it has progressively worsened. A trip to the quack today confirmed my worst fears - it is a virus and can't be fixed with antibiotics! I just have to take anti-nausea tablets and wait until it decides it is more sick of me than I am of it. Needless to say that as a result my output has been greatly reduced this week. I did however, manage to finish off Mr Anarchy's punks:

The Punks are the henchmen for Mr Anarchy, and I've used the Warlord Games Judge Dredd juve gang as the source of the figures. I tried to keep to a theme with Mr Anarchy's colours, while making sure they were all still individuals. I'm looking forward to taking them for a run with Clobberin' Time sometime soon.

I also painted five Old Glory Confederate generals for John, but haven't finished basing them yet.

Stonewall Jackson

Lee and his old war-horse, Longstreet.

Hill and Stuart.
The figures were all quite nice and characterful except Hill whose casting was quite rough, with holes and seam lines everywhere. I thought I'd got them all, but this photo proves me wrong.

The payment for painting John's British cavalry last week, these generals and the upcoming German cavalry is the return of several DBA armies that I painted and that ended up on John's shelves. This week, the Philistines were the first to come home:

Back in the promised land waiting for the Hebrews to arrive...

Next week I want to get Craig's 105mm battery and PaK 40s painted so that he can get them before NICon. Then I have John's Renegade German WWI cavalry to paint the following week, followed by some figures for Geoff, followed by some more Japanese tanks for Craig. Things are pretty full on, on the painting front over the next couple of months!

Nate

My Wargaming Week 7

Yep, up to number 7 already, although number 6 mysteriously disappeared into the aether...

So this week we managed to get some historics painted for other people and finished off Mothron for the superheroes project. I also managed to complete my city terrain board for the superheroes:

There is still a bit of work to do on the wrecked building tile, but everything else is pretty much complete.

Looking down Shortland street towards the junction with Sesame Street. Yes. You read that right. The streets are named after TV programmes. One is for infantile minds and the other has muppets...

Looking down Sesame Street.

Along with the terrain to fight over, a couple more characters and some henchmen were completed:

Mr Anarchy is a combination of Mr Mxyptlk's head and Shade's body. This close up reveals the trouble I am having with painting eyes at the moment.

 Mr Anarchy is Baz Burp from the future of Earth-C. He is the heir of the 'Big Family' Corporation  Burp Burger. On Earth-C libertarians won the Congress and Presidency of the USA in 2016, and within 6 months the country had collapsed into total anarchy. The rest of the world soon followed as the economic repercussions echoed around the globe. Out of the anarchy, several super-rich businessmen managed to carve their own fiefdoms. Eventually the remaining governments became summit meetings for representatives of the corporations. The world was effectively run by the 'Big Families'. Outside of the gated communities of workers that they provide protection to, chaos reigns. The Burps are one of the biggest families, and with their scientists discovering trans-dimensional travel, they are looking to expand. Particularly as there are very few resources available on their Earth anymore. Mr Anarchy's goal is to plunge this world into the same state of chaos his own went through, in order to make sure he carves out a new kingdom here and gets to exploit its resources.

Scarlet Rose was Malice

 A beautiful and deadly dagger for hire, the Scarlet Rose is a mysterious martial artist who specialises in the use of throwing knives. Sometimes she is on the good guys' side, and sometimes she is against them. It depends who is paying. The Malice figure that she comes from had a big hole in the back of her head when I removed the cape, and I had no green stuff. Enter the trusty blu-tak, which I sculpted and then covered in superglue. Yes - it works!

I inherited a number of Imperial Blood Beret Warzone figures which were already painted a while back. A quick repaint of the base and I figured that they would do a good job as some henchmen. Originally I thought they might fit with Mr Anarchy, but they don't look very anarchic, so these are now the Mothmen - Mothron's goons.

One last thing this week - although it didn't get painted this week, but a while back - is a clix that I converted up for Tim over at the Heropress blog. He represents a character Tim invented for his RPGs a number of years ago, and I thought he might appreciate a miniature of him.

The Acrobatic Flea - ready for action!

So another week down, and plenty accomplished. I now have to paint up Mr Anarchy's punks as the next step in the Supers collection.

Nate

My Wargaming Week 5

We won't mention what happened to number MWW 4...

So this week I have finished some figures for Geoff, and built some jungle terrain for Flames of War in Burma.

The first Japanese troops arrived yesterday

And were cleaned and based by last night.

I built another two T-72s, but then decided I couldn't really justify the Cold War when I've decided to do Japanese from scratch, so I've organised to paint these and swap them with Craig for some painted Japanese. It all works out.

The start of a new game board for super heroes as of this afternoon. The bottom left square will have a building on it soon. The corners are on cork tiles so that the board is modular.

My second game of the week was Commands and Colours Rolica. I played the French again, and again I won. I like this game. The other game I played on Friday night was Flames of War mid war where my Soviets got run over in uncompromising fashion by some Panthers and a Stuka. Fortunately no pictures exist of this humiliation.

And while at Mike's for the game:

I picked up some Staghounds and Engineers for my New Zealand army (which is also my Burma army)

Reading material turned up. The left hand book has some fantastic Angus McBride artwork in it. The books on the right are part of the DC Graphic Novel collection.

The painting tray as of Thursday night. I'm a bit further along now and hope to have them finished very soon.

I've also decided to part with the Arab-Israelis (again) and swap them for a mass of WWII Soviets with Craig. Not that I don't like the '67 and '73 wars, it is just that they haven't been played with in ages. I know that the Soviets will get plenty of use.

I've also organised a number of DBA armies out of my Gallic Wars and Dark Ages collections. I'm going back to my old favourite for some solo gaming. You know, when they are painted.

Blog of the Week

Considering that I haven't written my review yet, it is important that other's know a bit more about the GNW compendium. As such, I'll share this review from everyone's favourite Norwegian, Gunfreak. Spelling in English is not his friend but his review is very balanced and in line with my own thoughts.

Nate

My Wargaming Week 3

An interesting week just gone by in one's empires. First and foremost, some painting done for myself:

Irregular Miniatures 15mm Crimean War Russian Hussars

Irregular Miniatures 15mm Crimean War Russian Artillery

Lancashire Games 15mm Crimean War Sardinian Lancers

 Yes, this week saw me complete the last few units for the Crimean War project, and simultaneously decide to abandon it altogether. That is right, my butterfly attention span has drifted back to the Great War, and so I made a swap with John which saw my Battlefront Great War British and German armies come back home:

But... they aren't even painted!

In another fit of craziness I decided that I would abandon all Horse and Musket periods except the Great Northern War. Hence, I have sold off the beginnings of my Napoleonic project and put the Franco-Prussian War stuff into storage. What is replacing them?

First of all, WWI - I have 15mm armies for France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Britain  all in 1914, awaiting a paint brush, as well as the recently returned 1918 British and Germans. These are all to be played with variants of Flames of War, which suits me as it is the most frequently used rules in our club, and I might actually have the hang of most of it.

FoW is also a winner with World War II armies taking centre stage. Mid war Soviets and Germans as well as Late War New Zealanders and Germans. The impetus for this has been the painted Soviets and Kiwis that I am getting from Craig in exchange for painting his bare lead. It means I just need to worry about getting the Germans done. And to that end, today I put down a black ink wash on my panzers:

Grey - just like my cat.

Next step - some decals.

I also painted half a dozen Shermans this week, as Craig's Kiwis didn't have any armour:

I'm waiting on a can of spray varnish to seal some weathering pigments onto them. I also thought I had some British tank decals, but can't find any, so maybe I didn't.
Alongside my Arab-Israeli's and Team Yankee, it is looking like a very FoW year ahead. I have to say that I am also looking at the Pacific War releases and being sorely tempted by them. I'm also pondering giving Allan from Lancashire Games some more cash and putting together some Turks and Imperial British for WWI Palestine. Decisions, decisions.

The funding for any adventures in the Levant and/or Orient will come from the next commission, part of which can be seen here on the painting tray:

Some lovely 28mm figures to get stuck into for Geoff. 10 Perry Hessian jagers and a Front Rank artillery crew.

Blog-Post of the Week

I also thought it worth adding something else to my weekly wrap up, which would be my blog-post of the week. Although I don't comment nearly enough, I enjoy all of the blogs that can be found in my blog-roll on the right hand side of your screen. This week, the honours are shared between two thought provoking pieces. First of all, Trebian's Wargaming for Grown Ups tackled the very grown up issue of women in gaming. His own comments, and the original blog post that inspired it are well worth reading. I wanted to comment, but words just failed me.
Second is Legatus Hedlius with a more mundane topic - tinned corned beef! Very informative, especially from a Great War point of view - although I can't stand the stuff myself. Meat was so plentiful growing up in NZ I never had to resort to getting it from a tin. Shrimps on the other hand...

Nate