Sunday, 31 March 2019

Month in Review - March 2019

So, what's been happening?

Not a huge amount since my last update really, hardly played any games this month, and most of my painting has been commission stuff (and looks to be more of the same going forwards).



Played 3 games.  Painted 38 minis.  Still on 2/16 for #hobbyresolution2019 projects.  Current #hobbystreakday 90.  Been doing a lot of assembly and prep work too, with the Jomsviking stuff I had cleaned up now primed, along with making a start on 30 Cephalyx Drudges and 3 Monstrosities for Sean.


Own stuff kicked into touch...



Coming up will be APRIL FUEL DAZE 3, so I'll be able to knock that off the list, and maybe get some more personal painting done, however, I'm on a bit of a mission to get my garden sorted out for summer, so, if commissions come in, I'm OK with that too.

Yes, It's had two thin coats...

So, actual numbers?

Amount Task Completed




78 Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES) 16 21%
152 Paint Tales of Instahammer 2000pt Death Army (AoS) 138 91%
31 Paint 15mm Tree Folk army (Dragon Rampant) 31 100%
8 Paint 10mm Taurian Army (Warband)
0%
8 Paint 8 new elements for 15mm Picts (Hordes of the Things)
0%
6 Paint 6+ pts Jomsviking force (SAGA)
0%
4 Paint 4 Shadespire Warbands
0%
40 Paint 1200pt Norse Army (Of Gods & Mortals) 1 3%
100 Play 100 Games 25 25%
8 Play 8 new opponents 8 100%
8 Play 8 Boardgames 4 50%
1 Run April Fuel Daze 3!
0%
64 Maintain blog with weekly and monthly posts 16 25%
4 Go to 4 shows or conventions 2 50%
467 Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles
0%
12 Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc) 1 8%
991
24.42%

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

#workbenchWednesday 27/03/19

Back on track this week again, workbench has filled up to look like -

Busy busy busy

So I've cleaned up the Bang & Olafsson, Southern Death Cult (with added rabble and zombies) and some Peasant Militia, along with a wee Stone Golem and the upcoming kickstarter Troll/Ogre from Ral Partha Europe (Cheers Paul), plus the half pack of Grubs from Four A Miniatures.

I figured the Southern Death Cult might make a cool 15mm Frostgrave Warband, plus, some random evil henchman types should certainly come in useful.  I also really had to make a start on the Ogre as soon as he arrived, and I've based him up on a 60mm mdf base for 15mm gaming rather than a lipped one for 28mm+ games.

The fact that there is a whole host of new stuff up there can only mean one thing, and that is that I finished off the Questing Heroes pack, and they have now made their way back safely to Ral Partha Europe.

Group shot?  Okay then.

BE001 Questing Heroes - Blighthaven Encounter Pack (Ral Partha Europe)
I'm going to take a guess at matching up the contents to the actual miniatures, and offer a little bit of information about the colour choices, as it is a lot more varied than the other packs I've painted up.  Bear in mind that each of these pictures is going to show the miniatures at about 3-4 times their actual size.

Cleric
I painted this guy up to match the Town Guard set, so that he can be used as a Wizard alongside them.  I kept the linen and drab browns, along with the bright green as a spot colour.

Paladin
Painted up to match the Empire Knights set, as yet another commander option.  He shares the red livery, but has a purplish blue cloak to differentiate him a little.  Shield transfer from Veni Vidi Vici.


Elf Swordmaster

The one thing I wanted to avoid with both Elf models was defaulting to the standard greens.  Instead I went for a combination of blues and browns and creams, maybe more evocative of "High" Elves, and to tie them in with the rest of the party.  I'm not sure spandex is suitable questing attire, but Elves, eh?

Elf Archer
Likewise, the Archer is devoid of greens, and has a more muted colour scheme other than his cloak.  Lots of cream and grey and brown to keep him with an earthy look.

Barbarian
Pretty typical scheme, bare skin and furs.  Nothing really to add. 

Veteran Hero
Love this big lunk.  He is just crying out for a colour scheme reminiscent of an metal based Scottish carbonated beverage.  I just couldn't resist doing a lit bit of gore on the head of his axe, I imagine he has some issues with restraint after losing his eye.  Plus anyone that lives long enough in a fantasy world to have streaks showing in his beard probably knows a thing or two about violence.


Wildman Chieftain

Again, quite a subdued figure given his character.  Lots of creams and browns, with some bronze/gold detailing to denote his status.  It looks well off in the picture, but is fine at arms length.  Gotta love that big bone shoulder pad too.

Wizard
Painted up to run as a spellcaster for the Empire Knights pack.  Added the orange to the tabard to keep him relatively bright and contrast with his dark beard.  I imagine him to be more of a combat caster than the Cleric figure, so the dark beard hopefully hides charcoal burns from errant fireballs.
Dwarf
Red and Green combo for no other reason than I had been using them on the other warbands.  Coupled with the white beard, he might give off a bit of a Christmas vibe, but it isn't blatantly obvious  (well... it might be now...)  Shield transfer once again from Veni Vidi Vici.

Armoured Dwarf

So the only real difference between a Dwarf and an Armoured Dwarf is lack of nose.  Classic steel heavy armour look, with a bright orange beard for contrast.  There really isn't much else about this model, it is more than 90% armour and beard.


So that's that.  All 3 warbands complete and sent back, along with the kickstarter figures, not bad going around general life.  Plus I've made a start on some stuff for myself, plus I have 30 Cephalyx troopers and 3 Monstrosities to paint up for one of the Warmahordes guys, but that is supposed to be a super quick/basic job.  Need to get them primed, as the basing material should be dry by now.

Beyond that, watched a game of L'Art de la Guerre at the club on Monday, or, truthfully, spent 2hrs learning about setting up the table and watching Gary roll lots of 1's in combat...  Still, it is definitely a project for my Forged in Battle Gauls to be painted up for.  I've also been working away at getting more of the Foundry Vikings cleaned up and based for my Saga/OG&M projects, but they are still to be primed.

That pretty much sums up the last week, hopefully I'll have made good headway with the Cephalyx by my next update, around work and replacing a garden fence.

Cheers,

John

Friday, 22 March 2019

#workbenchWednesday 20/03/19 (delayed)

Slightly late this week as adulting got in the way over the last two days...

Workbench currently looks like this -

Kinda sparse, right?

The last 6 of the Ral Partha Europe Blighthaven miniatures waiting on a wash drying, then just highlights and layers and stuff to finish the full job off.  The end is in sight.  I've already finished up the Town Guard set, and the first 4 Heroes from this pack.

DH007 - Town Guard (Ral Partha Europe)


The stout hearted men of Blighthaven, resplendent in their 'official' colours.  Well, that's my claim at least seeing as these are for the webstore.  I went with a bright green and white colour combination to evoke the 'Blight' and 'Haven' of the name, along with a selection of drab browns and linen to represent more simple, hardwearing clothing.  No decals this time, all the shields were hand painted.

I've also finished off the first 4 minis (for the mathematically challenged)  from the Questing Hero pack, mainly because I was using a lot of the same colours as the Town Guard, so seemed less wasteful.

4/10 of BE001 - Questing Heroes (Ral Partha Europe)
You may notice that I have painted the two wizard types to tie in with the Town Guard and the previously completed Knights pack, and the Knight at the back is also boasting some red detailing.

Pretty sure one of the two groups here is better equipped to deal with things that go bump in the night...
So, plans on the painting front is to get the last 6 Heroes finished off and shipped back out, and hopefully have some time to get my spectral stuff done for my #talesofinstahammer army.

Gamingwise, managed another 3 games since last week.  Thursday night we headed over to Jimboba's for drinks and games and a catch-up, resulting in me being able to cross 2 more board games off the #hobbyresolution2019 list, (Zombicide: Black Plague and Mythic Battles: Pantheon) as well as indulging in a lot of planning for gaming ideas for the future.  Mostly 15mm, but he was desperately trying to sneak some individually based and magnetised 6mm in there too...

Shortly before the TPK...
The game of Zombicide: BP was a quick affair, we split the party to cover more group and ultimately paid the price with a Total Party Kill, with my Dwarf holding out until the last minute, before being dragged down in a wave of rotting assailants.  After a quick break for Enchiladas and Cider (recommended) we had a run through of Mythic Battles: Pantheon, choosing a God and blind drafting the rest of our forces.

Hail Hydra!
James was the victor here, after Sarah and I spend most of the game duking it out in the centre of the table with the Nemean Lion (and a Griffon) and my Hydra.  According to James there is a Norse/Viking one due out, so that is definitely on my radar.

I also managed a third game, this time versus Sam, when I was dropping off his warband at the club.  We played A Song of Blades & Heroes, a special scenario involving collecting explosive barrels.  The cowardly sniping of my Leader saw a cascading morale failure which turned into an all out rout of my warband.   So much for being Fearless Barbarians...

'Barrelling' forward...
Plumed assailant kebabs defenceless lady.  732 Colourised.

Moving forwards, we are looking at playing more ASoB&H, then using those warbands to try out Dragon Rampant (or Hero Rampant if you will, using one figure per unit) before expanding to full DR armies, then making them playable for other games like God of Battles, Warlords of Erehwon and SAGA: Age of Magic when it is releases next month.  I'll  pick up Thud & Blunder too (probably at Carronade) and that'll add another set of rules to try.  So I've been building up my Beastmen in preparation.



We are also planning more boardgaming, with Rising Sun being on the agenda for the next meet-up, although I'm obviously going to try and sneak Blood Rage and Chaos in the Old World in too.


So yeah, that's it really.  I have something I 'wood' like to talk about, but I'll save that for it's own post.


Cheers,

John

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

#workbenchWednesday 13/03/19

Well, it's been a relatively busy week, so I've a much more substantial post this time around.

First up, the traditional workbench shot -

They are just small, so you can paint more of them at the same time...


I currently have a couple of Blighthaven groups started, the Town Guard Warband and Questing Heroes Encounter Pack, both for the Ral Partha Europe online store.

These follow hot on the heels of quite a lot of painting.  I've just finished off Sir Roderick's Retinue for Sam over at 15mm Skirmish Supplies, and the new Empire Knights Company for webstore pictures.  I'm sure Paul will take much better ones with them set up on his gorgeous Blighthaven backdrop.

Enough chatter, here are some "glorious" shots of the finished packs.  Or at least, the best I can do with an Android and blackout blinds as it is an atypically sunny Scottish morning...

BH109 Sir Roderick's Retinue - Blighthaven Warband

BH021 Empire Knights Company - Blighthaven Warband
I went with yellow and black for Sir Roderick's Retinue as Sam didn't want red (I think) and something else.  Now, I've got a very basic grasp of heraldry (for metals, White is Silver and Yellow is Gold, then you have Red, Blue, Green and Black)  and you basically pick one from each set.  See, basic.  Now, normally, I'd just go with Blue/White, but, I'll probably paint up some for myself, and that is my default colour scheme for pretty much everything, so that was out.  I figured yellow was fine, as, it's not really my favourite colour to paint, but it should look pretty striking (which is good on 15's) and would standout well against all the metal.  I then went with the muted black for contrast.  Similarly, with the Empire Knights, I broke away from Blue/White and went with Red instead seeing as they'll be heading off to Liverpool.  Plus it is kinda evocative of Knights Templar and English Heraldry in general.  So, lots of using colours I tend to avoid, but it's been fun pushing myself a bit, plus, doing 15's again feels good.

Speaking of painting things red...   There are a couple of Ral Partha Europe kickstarters coming up, Chaos Dwarfs (and a Troll) followed by Ratmen.   I was lucky enough to get a few masters to paint (see last post) and here are the finished ones.






Again, great to do some more involved painting, rather than blitzing out the basecoat and wash jobs on my Draugr Undead.  Never been a huge fan of Ratmen in general, but I really dig the one with the Mace, and think he'd be a great Black Skaven for Morheim, hence the dark fur.

That pretty much covers all my recent painting (currently up to 292 minis this year) and the only other thing of note was an impromptu trip down to Dumfries for the Albanitch show on Saturday, seeing as I'd never been before, and it let me tick something else off the #hobbyresolution2019 checklist.

The show was surprisingly small, like, I didn't really know what to expect, but was still taken aback by how... quiet it was.  There was probably less traders than I could count on both hands, with Warlord and Warbases having the biggest stands.  There were no public participation games from what I could see, just a few really big historic games that looked more like people just playing casually for the day and a small Carnevale game, which I later discovered wasn't intended for anyone to play.

Hobby purchases were relatively light, mainly bases and basing stuff to keep my stockpile ticking over, as well as a couple of packs of Rabbits from Warbases, as I have that recurring itch to do a weird Narniaesque Tree Spirit Wild Hunt army.  I also picked up a couple of packs of Westfalia Miniatures Halflings from their recentish kickstarter (goat riding hero and Wizard and Apprentice) for a fiver, and a random Wargames Foundry Norse Dwarf prototype for the princely sum of 50p.  Pretty sure I already have him, but he is hiding somewhere, so I felt it was an acceptable price.  I also ended up with half a pack of Four A Miniatures Grubs and a "Boobie pirate" after the wee one made such a fuss about her having her funbags on show...

A modest haul.

And that is pretty much it for the week.  I think I'm heading over to Jimboba's tommorow (unless he has forgotten about our "date") to run riot around the Warchest.   Better go bug him for details...


Cheers,

John

Thursday, 7 March 2019

#workbenchWednesday 06/03/19

Just a quick update for what is left of today.

Got a bunch of stuff to in to paint for Ral Partha Europe, 3 Blighthaven warbands and some Ratmen and an evil looking Dwarf that will be kickstartered shortly.



I have them all assembled, primed and inked to tone them down and pick out the detail.  Most of the bases are also done.




And finally, moved all my personal stuff off to the sidelines for now.



Cheers,

John