CuttersCanyon

Second Fire team ready for action

2011-07-09T04:17:00.000-07:00

Finished painting the second of three fire teams tonight. They didn't take as long as the first as I just followed my notes from last time.

From my reading list i have discovered the name of the condition that I (and many other gamers) suffer from.It is Gamer Distraction Syndrome. More information on it can be found here. To fight this I am going to take a leaf out of The Man Cave and have a focus for each month, which obviously makes this month Ambush Alley (and its variations).

Further the Ambush Alley group of games, my Bag O Zombie Babes arrived today. I'm not sure if it's a day late or 19 days early, as Amazon kept sending me delay notification emails for a bout 4 days, with the last saying arrival on the 8th (today is the 9th), and the email telling me it had shipped saying the arrival date was expected to be the 28th.

The Zombie babes are a nice looking miniature. Unfortunately, they only come in a single pose, but as there are 100 of them in the bag, I expect I will be doing a spot of conversion work.

Fire team 1 painted

2011-07-03T03:53:00.000-07:00

Over the last two nights I've been painting the first of my fire teams for Ambush Alley. I've only been able to put in an hour a night, so it works out that it takes about two hours to paint a fire team. They are only painted with basic colours, no highlighting or shading. I may dip them later, when all the figures I'm painting are at this standard.

I'm still not sure what I am going to do with the bases of these figures, as I want to leave the counter (or at least some of it) showing to separate the teams/types. If anybody is reading this I would welcome suggestions for the bases.

I've also sorted through my Airfix WWII ground crew sets to find figures suitable for civilians so I can make some civilian mobs as well. To go with that, My first Bag O Zombies (Babes) should arrive by the end of the week.

Back to AA terrain tomorrow night.

Ambush Alley miniatures

2011-06-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

Spent part of tonight basing the figures I'm using for Ambush Alley. They are (from left to right and from the back) Insurgents with small arms, Insurgent leaders, Insurgent RPGs, Insurgent Machine guns. All insurgents are played by Esci Vietcong. Next are Marines/Us Army. 3 x fire teams, and squad leaders. Represented by Modern US infantry. In front of them are a sniper team and two missile teams.Some random figures to represent civilian contractors, and similar. Panzer grenadiers are up next, 3 gruppes, and a sniper and missile team (all there just for Nigel).Finally, playing the role of various organizations are US special forces from Vietnam.

Last week I added Ambush Z to my AA collection, and realised that I needed Zombies in 1:72 scale to go with it. As there are very few available in this scale I ordered a Bag Zombies babes from Amazon (as Nigel has Zombies and Zombie dogs from the Zombies board game already). Later I will add a Bag O Zombies, and a Bag O Zombies Dogs and maybe a Bag O Skeletons as well

AA building updates

2011-06-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

I've begun to texture the buildings, by first adding pieces of the card shown in a previous post, then coating the walls in plaster. Once the plaster dried the first building was given a coat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand. I followed that with a heavy dry brush of white poster paint, so that some of the Iraqi sand shows through in the recesses.

The two pictures below show this. One is taken with the flash on, and the other under normal lighting. I'm not sure which is better as the flash shows the white as very bright.

I put the fire team in front to show the building size. The figures are modern US soldiers in 1:72 scale.

I've still got to plaster the roof, which I think I will require mixing the plaster rather than using a premixed tub. Also on the list of things to do on the building is painting the roof trapdoor, and adding texture to, and painting the base.

New boards

2011-06-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

Following on from my last post, and my desire to return to Ambush Alley on a 3 x 3 board, I dug out a 3mm MDF sheet (Of which I have a large number) with the intention of painting it on both sides. The Idea behind this was to have a reversible board which could be used for both Ambush Alley, and Firestorm Armada.

Both sides were base-coated, one with black, the other with brown.

On the black side I followed it with a splatter effect of white (shake the brush at the board). This produced some streaks in places, rather than the straight spotting I wanted, so I had to go over the streaks with black to eliminate them. I was happy with the final result, as seen below

The other side I attacked with a sandy colour obtained from Resene ($2.00 Obsolete test pot), using the brush with a rough approach so that the paint was smeared, leaving traces of the basecoat showing. I hope this makes it look like windblown sand, and not just mess, but it should look better with terrain on it.

Hajjis 2, Marines nil

2011-06-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

Played another 2 games of Ambush Alley last night. Neither of us could figure out what went wrong as the marines fell to the insurgents in both games

The First game was over in less than half an hour, as one of my marines fire teams got shredded after cleaning out a hotspot, and the second team started taking casualties shortly after. Of course it was Nigel having incredible luck with the insurgent dice rolls.

Reset, and after slow start I was getting good rolls with the insurgents, but not great. Fortunately, Nigel started rolling badly with the marines on defense, with one team getting cut down one move short of the contractors. RPG fire on the overwatch team began to take it's toll, and Nigel also conceded.

One of the problems with the game may have been the size of the board we were using, as it was a 4 x 4, rather than a 3 x 3. The terrain being more open than it would have on a smaller board seemed to favour the insurgents. Next time round we'll go back to the 3 x 3, as I will take a board of my own, instead of using a club board.

Focus, Focus,Focus

2011-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

I've decided that for the rest of this year I'm going to narrow my focus on wargaming, and concentrate on only a few things.

Right now, my thoughts seem to be aimed at the Ambush Alley games (AA, Force on Force, Tomorrows war, and eventually Ambush Z), and building up my collection of terrain for it.

As you can see, the buildings are currently at the bare foamcore stage. I plan to add some damage to them with some card I picked up a long time back, with brickwork and stonework on it. That will be followed by a coating of plaster to allow me to work cracks and possibly some weapons damage.

More pics and updates later as i continue to work on these buildings

Another wooden spoon

2011-03-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

Due to a lack of venue Adam (Christchurch's pressganger) moved Monstercon 3 to Timaru.

Over 4 rounds I watched my score fall further and further behind.

First round, I got a lesson in how tough a gator force is (Hordes Minions).

Second round against Scott, I had him in position for an assassination victory, but couldn't prevent a scenario win by him.In my turn he would had Magnus catching a Reckoner with full focus to the face, through Testament's feat. I think I will play some more games using Testament in the future.

The Third round was sacrifice, and although I was facing Richard, I felt I was facing Nigel (Gunline does NOT equal funline, unless you play Cygnar). a mistake left Kreoss in the open with a hunter lining him up for the kill.

Fourth round had me facing another Cygnar army, and another death for Kreoss.

I was the only one to walk away from the day with no wins, so I guess that's another wooden spoon for the collection. And my thoughts about the future of my Menoth force? Knights Errant and Idrian Skirmishers for some shooting, and play a few more games with Testament. But more importantly, play Firestorm Armada, I had more fun playing a half game of that than a full tournament of Warmachine/Hordes. (must save money for a fleet)

A quick update

2011-02-14T01:57:00.000-08:00

Once again it's been a while since I posted.

Of course things have been a bit busy, with finding a new house, and moving. Most of my wargaming stuff is currently in storage in the garage/basement, so I have very little to work on, and next to no desire to paint at present.

During this hiatus I have added to my collection. My PoM force has just received the addition of the High Reclaimer, and his epic identity as Testament of Menoth.

I have also added two more games from Ambush Alley Games, in the form of Force on Force (AA with regulars vs regulars), and the pre-release PDF of Tomorrows War - the scifi expansion for force on force. I recently printed them out, and with a little help from my boss, bound them.

Just before Xmas I took the plunge and ordered Firestorm Armada from maelstrom in the UK. After reading the book and seeing the photos within of the fleets available, it seems my main buying project for this year will be my Terran Alliance fleet. I'm that impressed with the models that I've done something I don't normally do. I've offered to paint Nigel's Dindrenzi fleet when he gets it.

I'm hoping to start posting a bit more regularly once I get the garage/basement sorted, as i hope to set a table up in the basement and be able to play games there without having to constantly move things on off the dining table in the house.

Matchbox models, providing ruins for Ambush Alley

2010-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

I've been making buildings for Ambush Alley, and so far they have been intact buildings, as I have not been looking forward to making ruined ones also.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a Revell Sherman Firefly kit off trademe, in 1:76 scale. Of course there were very few companies that make models in 1:76, and for the most part, Revell make 1:72 kits. This got me thinking, and when the model arrived, the first thing I did was check the sprues. It turns out, Revell have all the old matchbox moulds, as matchbox always included a terrain piece for display.

From there, I remembered I had acquired a boxful of matchbox kits that were already assembled. Digging them out, I found the terrain pieces were there with them, and I now have a good set of ruins to use with Ambush Alley.

I'm a hopeless blogger

2010-11-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

It's been quite some time since I updated this blog.

To be honest, I haven't done a lot with my miniatures in that time, just some sporadic painting, and working on terrain. I'm finding it hard to get motivated to work on anything at the moment.

Since the last update I have participated in the Kiwithralls Nation at War league, finishing around the middle of the field. Although the idea was to start a new army, I continued with my Menoth force, using the league as a means to learn more about my units,and caster. I started the league strong, with a win for my first game, using Kreoss to take out Resnick, and learned the value of Exemplar Seneschals. My seneschal assaulted Troys heavy jack, smiting it directly onto Resnick. It was then loss/win/loss and so on to the end of the league. Another highlight of the league for me was taking out John's Special K at the Longest Night tournament - multiple hits from jacks leaving him on one box, and me casting around the table, looking for something to deliver the final blow (Sunburst for the win).

I've also looked at Ambush Alley, and played a couple of games of this. I find it to be an enjoyable game. Playing the quickstart scenario both ways left me with two losses. As the insurgent, I got slaughtered, as expected. Turn around and Nigel hammered me when I took the marines, despite my tactics scaring him at the start. Damn his luck with my dice.

The most recent game I've played was back to warmachine - 25 points vs Nigel. The usual debate over his list started the game."My list changes, I'm always changing it." Maybe the caster changes, but almost every time I've faced him it's been two hunters and a defender. Anyway, he took eHaley, two hunters, defender, squire, gunmage captain. to oppose him, I took pKreoss, two devouts, revenger, knights exemplar, exemplar seneschal, and wracks.(yes, all light jacks) Nigels dice were against him, and I capitalised on this. I also played badly, by not moving as fast as i could with the knights. In the end, Kreoss held out through Haleys feat and set fire to her twice before she fell, and once the game was over, I realised that I forgot my feat. oh well, I 'll remember it when I play Owen next week.

Doc Ock is alive and well - and living in the under hive

2010-06-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

I've been adding to my necromunda collection lately, including more eschers, and a delaque gang.

The eschers are all bare metal, and will be painted when I feel the inspiration, but that will have to wait as I plan to get a set of bases from Iron Halo and refit all my Eschers to that set.

The Delaques were a sight to behold. For a gang that is supposed to be sneaky, and hide in the shadows, they stood out a bit. They looked more like hippies with tie-dyed overcoats, and guns. Soon to be stripped, and repainted when the urge takes me.

I've also acquired a couple of hired guns for my collection, in the form of two scummers, and a second beastmaster Wyrd.

On to the subject of the title. With the small necromunda kick happening I finally got around to building my Spyrer patriarch. It changed a bit from my initial plan as I looked over what I had ready, and made a few observations. A pair of catachan lasguns had their stocks removed before being added to pipes, and the powerclaws were made from offcuts from a space marine backpack, and the talons from a set of lightning claws

As you can see, the figure came out looking a bit like Doctor Octopus, hence the title. It still requires some work with greenstuff to fill in some gaps and sculpt on a few extra details

Worldworks

2010-05-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

I've added the link for Worldworks to Come Play in my worlds.

They are a web based company that specialize in cardboard terrain. And their terrain works, It's sturdy, and can stand up to some fairly heavy miniatures. With all their products as download PDF files, you can print as much or as little as you want to assemble your terrain.

I've recently bought Thoumont's TLX edition (thousands of buildings) and Terrainlinx Himmelveil Streets as part of my modular city plans.

Check them out.

From ship to shore

2010-05-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

My plans to build Osgiliath have altered slightly. Osgiliath will now be incorporated into a more ambitious project - a modular city. A city that includes intact and ruined Osgiliath, an imperial sector, and a harbour/dock section. My intention is to use this project as a battlefield source for a variety of games. Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer, 40K, Necromunda, and Lord of the Rings/War of the Ring.

I've looked at starting this project several times since I got some tiles cut for it (63 so far), but had no clear idea of where to start. After providing a friend with the materials to build the Worldworks kit Maiden of the High Seas, and having visions of Necromunda Gangers running riot below decks I had the starting point. Sea tiles, and the dock for the maiden. Of course this also works well for Warmachine, with either Cryx or pirates raiding a port.

All tiles are 1 foot square for this undertaking, and I began with 8 of them. 4 were painted with a blue poster paint that I've used for water before, as it tends to run to slightly different shades of blue depending on the thickness brushed on. I deepened the blue by adding a wash of Tamiya Smoke (X19).

The other 4, I didn't give a full coat, but left 1 edge unpainted. These tiles will form the dock frontage. To build up the dock I trimmed popsicle sticks for planks and glued them in place. I still need to add an edge to the dock, which will probably be made from balsa, and sit slightly higher than the planks. And of course I still have to come up with something for bollards

For those who are interested, I'll add a link for Worldworks in the side bar.

First post in a while

2010-05-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I have acquired my new Blood Agels codex, along with the new miniatures.

But I have also been occupied with another project that came to fruition on april 13,the arrival of my son Lachlan. Of course this has meant that I haven't been able to put much time into gaming, so I have only had one battle in the Kiwithralls Nation @ War league.

During this time my Menoth collection has expanded with the addition of eKreoss, Covenant of Menoth, a second sunburst, Zealots with a monolith bearer, a choir, and Resnik. The last three thanks to Troy, fro a deal with a friend of his in Christchurch.

My N@W list for april consisted of pKreoss, Crusader, Revenger, Devout, and a Seneschal.I'm not sure of my expansion for may, but I am thinking of adding the choir (probably half) along with the covenant, and a sunburst. Other options include knights examplar, a Paladin, or even bastions (if they are still at comics and i decide to get them)

Short update

2010-02-20T02:06:00.000-08:00

I've gone back to painting my Blood Angels lately, after playing Ash in a game of Blood Angels vs Blood Angels.(It ended in a draw)

I'm currently working on one of my devastator squads. It already had 3 elements finished - The sergeant and two missile launchers. The remaining elements are coming along nicely at present, and will look better than the rest when they are finished. This is because i have changed my approach to painting and now work on what I am inspired tp paint rather then forcing myself to work on the next thing on my list

The downside to this is that with my new approach, everything will look better than previous work. Long term, this means that I am going to have to rework almost my entire blood angels army. Squad by Squad into the simple green for stripping, and then repaint the units. I am going to have to put a small investment into my painting gear soon, and buy an airbrush and compressor

On another note, I have the new Tyranids codex, and my first thought was seroiusly disapointed in it. Where are my flesh hooks? In fact, where are half my mutations? Why do I now have too many Hormagaunts and Termagants (Max brood size has shrunk). The new codex means a major reoganization for existing tyranid players, with the only gain being the new units.

Web MMORPG Golemizer

2010-02-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Web MMORPG Golemizer

Return of the Damned

2010-02-02T01:17:00.000-08:00

I gave in recently, and bought my first White Dwarf in over a year, mainly because it tied in with the release of the new Tyranids. In it I found the new rules for the Legion of the Damned for 40K.

My first thought was I wouldn't mind running a squad of them in a battle or two, although I don't think they are legal in a Blood Angels army. Of course I can't just go out and buy a box of them at present, but I have had a box of them stashed away for years. These are the older models, still packing the chunky style bolters from 2nd edition. Still cheaper than buying a new box.

I've assembled them overthe last couple of days, and had been planning on using one the new style plasma cannons for the heavy weapon in the squad. A quick test fit with the cannon revealed that old school devastator bodies are not compatible with the cuurent style of marine heavy weapons. So I guess my legion squad are going to be like half my blood angels force - retro. The heavy has the shoulder mounted Heavy bolter.

The Legion squad will get a test run on wednesday when I take on Ash with a 1500 point force.

Hopefully my new Tyranids Codex and Vampire Counts army book will arrive soon, and I can reorganize those two armies so i know where I stand. and of course the new Blood Angels codex in April

Raising the dead

2010-01-18T00:15:00.000-08:00

Over the last couple days (when not at work) I've been assembling undead, or making movement trays for the War of the Ring. This morning I realised I could add a 4th regiment of skeletons to my core units, and dug my Ring of Rule cursed legion.

These figures actually give me a regiment of skeletons armed and armoured like the legions of Rome. It's bit light comapred with my other skeleton regiments at 24 figures, while the rest are 30.

Of course all this could be changed, as I haven't seen the new army list yet.

The dead have risen

2010-01-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted on my blog, so i thought I would get back into it.

Over the last couple of days I have revisited my Vampire counts army, to the point of digging out my (very) old skeletons. These are actually the original plastic skeletons that GW produced. The advantage of using these, is that I can field two extra regiments of skeletons.

Of course, I don't have a current army book, so I've got that on order at my local supplier. It's not the only army book I require for my various armies, as I also want the new Tyranid, and Blood Angel Codexes, along with the upcoming Menoth forces book for Warmachine.

I'm also going to add a WIP list for my Vampire Counts in the sidebar, so I can track my progress, as with the other armies I have there.

War of the Ring

2009-10-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

I recently bought GW's War of the Ring rulebook, and after reading through it I think it makes a better game than the strategy game. Of course, I don't need to buy much to get a reasonable army ( or two) together. In fact, for the time being I don't need to buy any new figures for this.

After sorting my LOTR figures I've decided to focus on two armies, with possible allies for each (up to 25% of the an army's points may be spent on allies). Continuing my theme from TAGCon 2009, I'm going to make an Isengard army, with Haradrim allies (no Mumak). And after a thorough check over of my forces of good, I'm building a Rohirrim army with Gondor and Elf allies.

Since Saturday I've put in a few hours on the first two formations of Rohirrim I'm building. These are both common formations, from the same sprues. Oathsworn militia, which come in two types - archers, and infantry. After about six hours of work on the 30 something miniatures I have available, They now stand at weapons and armour completed, along with the clothing. In all, 10 coats of paint across the various parts of the minis. I'm happy with the progress so far, but they still have a long way to go to be completed.

The fleet grows

2009-10-10T02:10:00.001-07:00

I've been expanding my fleet over the last couple of days in small working sessions.

Two hours on thursday afternoon saw my vanguard drones expand to six, with a small modification on the design. with two options for armament I decided to give them pyroacid batteries. A heavily trimmed spine fist was mounted underneath the nose of the drone. Later, I'll be making some drones with feeder tentacles, but I can't do that until I get my hands on some old pens that I can remove the springs from.

Vanguard drones with pyroacid battery

Today I've built two of my prototype Krakens. One with pyroacid battery, and the other with torpedoes

Kraken with pyroacid battery

Kraken with torpedoes

I also commenced building my first cruiser, using a spare back plate from a carnifex, with a pair of massive talons coming out from it. Two warrior barbed stranglers form the back end, with a spore mound as the underside. A spare armour plate forms a beak at the prow.

I still have to add the armament to the cruiser, but I'll come back to that next time i work on the fleet.

Unarmed cruiser

Sludged

2009-10-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

Kill the caster, or kill the jacks. Sounds easy.

I fought Owen in a battlebox game last night, and came out the other side with a bit more knowledge, and another loss.

Using his Cryx against my Menoth, Owen took the first turn, advancing quickly across the table. I responded by marching my jacks forward, and Kreoss opening up with his Lamentation spell, with Deneghra inside his control range

Two turns later, my revenger had lost his halberd to the slayer. Seeing a possible quick end to the game, I ran the damaged revenger past the Cryx jacks to within three inches of Deneghra. Kreoss fired Menoth's wrath, knocking down all the cryx jacks, and pushed immolation through the revengers arc node. The spell missed as I didn't have the focus to boost it. Oh well, time to do as much damage as I could to the jacks.

Kreoss charged the slayer slamming it quickly but not finishing it. The Crusader tore the head off one of the Deathrippers.

Owen finished the game by having the slayer pick Kreoss up, and throw him toward the crusader. Kreoss fell short, and to the side. One obstacle in area, a wall, and of course Kreoss lands on it (half his life gone). The defiler moves across to get a line on the fallen Kreoss, and promptly fired its sludge cannon. Game over, Kreoss lies dissolved in a puddle of goo.

Another new project

2009-10-06T02:10:00.000-07:00

I've just started another new project after browsing trademe's WH40K listings.

I found an auction for Battlefleet Gothic, consisting of The rules, a Chaos fleet, and a conversion fleet of tyranids. Being a bug player myself, the tyranid fleet was of great interest to me, and I asked the seller if he had details on how the fleet was built.

He replied that he found the details on site but it was no longer around. Being a curious person, I did some browsing, and found a site that may or may not have the one he used , but had some good advice on scratch building tyranid vessels. One page added to favourites later, and I was off to my bits box, digging out a few items.

A gaunt devourer was removed from the arm, and three scything talons from my genestealer sprues were worked on, removing the arm from the elbow up. The small spurs from the elbow were kept, and the rest of the arm tossed. The arms were cut to a better size after that, and test fitted to the devourer. Once I was happy with the cuts to the arms, I glued them on, and added one of the small spurs to the top of the devourer. I now have my first vanguard escort drone, and the means to make a large number of them.

The site I got the details from also suggest using Raveners as Hive ships, with a few alterations, and I just happen to have three older raveners lying around, along with a 3rd edition Hive Tyrant. So I could have the makings of a fairly large fleet just lying around in my bits box. Not too bad, one army's left over parts forming an entire new force for another game

Kreoss Marches on

2009-10-06T01:56:00.000-07:00

I've put in a few sessions on Project Menoth in the last two weeks, and the Battlebox is beginning to take shape. Kreoss has now been assembled, basecoated, and now his robes have been painted along with his armour. The jacks have had their hydraulics painted, armour finished, and now the trim on the armour (red) has been completed.

Obviously there is still a lot more work to do on the battlebox, but they will taken on their second outing tomorrow. Their first was about a week ago, against Nigel's mangled metal list. naturally that was not a battlebox list, at least 50 points more than my list, but it taught me a few things about the game. I also learned that lamentation is very good spell against Haley. Once Kreoss was in range for the spell, he shut down her turtle very effectively. I did get hammered, as the long guns on his two light jacks put my jacks down quickly, but they did provide enough cover for Kreoss to close with the ironclad, and pound it into scrap metal.

Despite the defeat I enjoyed the game, and am looking forward to many more games of warmachine. Tomorrow is my training game with Owen before the battlebox tournament, which takes place on the following 2 wednesdays.

Finally back to this

2009-09-21T03:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.
In the time between this post and the last I have ventured into TAGCon with my uruk-hai.

My best result in that was a draw (due to time) trying to break into Helm's Deep. Despite all the losses I still walked out with two prizes from the LoTR tournament - Sportsmanship, and (big surprise to me) Painting.

Both prizes were $20 gift certificates from Comics Compulsion in Christchurch, and I spent them recently, expanding my Menoth army by a Reckoner, a Devout, and Amon Ad-Raza.

Just over a week ago I started a new terrain project, which can be applied to most of my heroic 28mm armies. From the LoTR magazines I am building Osgiliath, with a mix of ruins and intact buildings. The way I see this, it serves as - Osgiliath for LoTR and the War of the Ring (if I decide to get into that), - 40K as a ruined Imperial City, - Fantasy as a ruined city (if I continue my VC army and fantasy becomes a game at TAG, and finally - Necromunda, as part of my own campaign setting (Cutters Canyon)

Project Menoth begins

2009-07-18T03:35:00.001-07:00

I've finally made a start on Project Menoth. Two of the miniatures in my collection have been sprayed, and the first two coats of paint have been applied. I decided to start with the robes of each figure, and work my way out from there.
The first figure is one of the knights exemplar, as a test piece. I have been making notes of the colours used as i go, so I can reproduce the same scheme on the rest of the unit. This is a far cry from my usual painting approach, as I tend to paint an entire unit without a test piece first. Of course most of what I have painted has been for my two 40K armies, and have been fairly straight forward. The scheme for my tyranids was in the codex, and blood angels? Who are we kidding, red with black trim.
Anyway, the exemplar has had his robes painted with Sanguine base, followed by Sanguine highlight. Although its not very clear in the picture, I will build a couple more layers of highlighting on the robes before i am satisfied, as I want this army to be some of my best work.
The cleanser also started with the robes, using Menoth white base and highlight.
The highlight hasn't come out as crisp as I would like, and I will apply another coat of it before adding a final highlight with Tamiya gloss white.
I've also been assembling the minis slowly, so the rest of the two units, along with my jacks, solos, and casters will all be ready to paint after these two figures are finished.
Although I haven't done anything to the bases yet, I've decided to put a layer of sand on each, and then build them up a little with some (unused) kitty litter, and maybe some slab like pieces of plasticard, to simulate a desolate wasteland.
I've also got another couple of figures on the way. A light warjack, able to be configured as two variations. Another Crusader. A paladin of the Order of the Wall. And finally, Kreoss and Severius again.

Hive war at TAG

2009-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Last wednesday, Ash began a Necromunda Campaign down at the club. I decided to run my Eschers on the first night, but for most of the campaign I will be running a Spyrer gang as I will not be able to make most of the game nights.
I've also purchased the first miniatures for a new project for my Necromunda set. It's been on my list of things to do for a long time, and was originally going to be a WH40K project. Now, the idea has been scaled down to a Necromunda project as I don't really want to build another 40K army, and Necromunda seems like a good place to begin this type of project.
We spent the weekend in CHCH, and I visited Comics (Looking for Menoth stuff, but they were sold out) and decided to buy what I needed for this project. I have long wondered why GW never translated the Skaven forces to the 40K universe. As a result of this not happening officially, I decided that I would take this project on myself.
With plenty of spare guns lying around, arming them is not a real problem. I decided that nightrunners would be more suited for the image I have in mind for them, so I bought a box. A couple of hours later I bought a warpfire thrower also. Of course, I will also have to write the rules for this gang myself, and that will form part of this project also. I still plan to add some of the other Skaven specific weapons to the list, specifically, Poison wind globadiers, and maybe a Ratling gun and Jezzails.

New Menoth figures for my force

2009-07-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I came into some extra money, and decided to purchase a few new items for my Menoth force. half price items on Trademe were very tempting, and I bought the extras I wanted.
First purchase was a card deck, along with the Cygnar deck for Nigel. A week later I bought a box of deliverers, (now I need to get a couple of blisters to fill out the unit) and a few days after I bought an Avatar, and a Guardian.
Project Menoth will be resumed after TAGcon, as I plan to devote myself to two game systems only for a while. One of these is Warmachine, and the other will be Necromunda.

Steady Progress

2009-07-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

My Uruk's are coming along nicely, and should be ready by TAGcon. Scouts are finished, most of the Uruk infantry also. The Crossbows have had their first coat of paint, and the last of the Wargs and riders are based and ready to begin. I just have one more figure to make - a Warg Rider standard bearer.
My LoTR terrain hasn't moved much in the last couple of weeks, but I will get back to that after the minis are painted.

Uruk forces are growing

2009-06-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

After a slack month, where I've just been touching up the already painted Isengard forces I have I've finally begun to paint the other pieces I own. After my first game of LoTR I came to the conclusion that what my Uruks really need are more ranged weapons.
One trip to toyworld later, and just getting in before they sent their order to GW, I was waiting for 3 packs of uruks with crossbows. Two weeks later, and the order arrives from GW australia, with everything but my uruks. Another two weeks, and my uruks are now at toyworld, waiting for me to pay for them.
In the meantime, I went browsing though trademe, looking at LoTR auctions, and found a load of Uruk scouts going cheap. $26.50 inc. postage, and I have 38 scouts in my possession. Hmmmm, crossbows and bows with my uruks?, and uruks hit on a 4+ instead of the 5+ of normal orcs? Might just have to stand back, and see if my ranged attacks can take those pesky Elves, Men and Dwarves down before committing my melee troops to action.
Of course, half the scouts were already painted, which means I need to get them stripped down to restart the painting, and have them match the rest of my uruks. They've been sitting in simple green for just over a day, and I've tested one them with an old toothbrush. Some of the paint is coming off, but not all, so I'll leave them for another day and revisit them. If that doesn't work, I'll leave them over the weekend, and take them out on monday.
I'm also planning on providing terrain for three or four tables at TAGcon, and currently have enough for two, with two more being worked on. I dug out the Mines of Moria terrain I started along time ago, and began to rework that, adding more workings, and raised mounds.
And just to prove that my insanity streak is growing, I began working on a Weathertop terrain piece, which, when it's finished, will be almost enough to be a 4*4 table in itself.

I'm back

2009-05-14T01:43:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since I posted anything, due to various things, mostly work taking up my time.
Anyway, at Timaru Armchair Generals we announced our tournament date at the start of april, and listed what games we are planning on running. The competitions planned are :- WH40k, Warmachine, LOTR, and Bloodbowl. It's taken me most of the time since then to decide what i wanted to play, finally settling on LOTR.
I've decided it's to be LOTR because - 1. I can't be bothered learning to play 40k again (5th edition), 2. The chances of my Menoth army being ready lie somewhere between slim and no chance, and 3. I had enough of bloodbowl many years ago, and I don't like some of the changes to rules as they now stand.
At least with LOTR I have about half of my minis painted, and the scheme for the army I'm planning on fielding is reasonably straightforward to paint. I have very little experience playing, but the rules are simple , and it shouldn't take long to pick up, (even if my tactical skill doesn't). And the best thing is, it gives me the motivation I've been lacking to get back to painting. So expect a few articles on LOTR, and Isengard forces over the next couple of months.
Another note on tournaments came up last night at the club. Owen (Payne), has decided to run a Warmachine Battlebox tournament in January. Very simple in idea. No need to build a big army to x points, all you need is a starter box for any particular army. And the prize? a battlebox.

Another unproductive week

2009-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't accomplished much in the way of work on my miniatures in the last week or so.

I usually rinse my brushes under the tap in the bathroom when I'm painting, as it's only a couple of steps away from my work area, and it saves having containers of water within flailing distance, but the drainpipe on the basin split last week. A new pipe is in place, but is not connected to trap outside as it is 300mm of concrete to drill through, and the plumber cant lean on the end of a dynadrill at present due to a damaged shoulder.

My main work has been planning out some new terrain for Necromunda, to be made from MDF (due to acquiring a large supply of it).

It's taken a while to get this photo. My three year old daughter loves to watch me paint, and if she gets the chance she'll grab a brush, and a painted mini, and pretend to paint.

Rescue Mission x2

2009-04-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

Two rescue missions in one night. The first when Ash tried to rescue his lost Escher, the second with John trying to recover a captured Juve.

The first game against Ash took longer to set up than to play. Two turns in luck was with one of my sentries, as he stepped to edge of a platform, and the random direction roll left him facing the the two Eschers below him. the dice roll for spotting distance left him staring straight down at the Escher leaders head. Being a good member of the gang he promptly raised the alarm - by putting a boltshell from his shotgun through the Escher's head. The ground level sentry was staring in the right direction, and reacted to the shot, by levelling his autogun, and blowing a hole in the chest of the leader's companion.

Ash began the next turn by making a bottle test. Disapointment reigned around the table as everybody groaned at the result. End of game. One well-used Escher ganger sold into slavery, and a free shotgun in my stash.

John steps up, and prepares to recover his lost juve. Two hours of solid gunfire follow, and John wins, taking his juve back. His only bottle test was immediately before winning, and he passed.
A very tough game, whose highlights included two three story plunges to ground. My particular favourite part of the game was John's heavy stubber. After scoring seven successful hits with it in the previous game, it was ineffective this time, with only one or two hits. My Marksman was stood in the open for a long time, taking round after round of sustained fire from the stubber, but not one wound. Four turns of fire, pinned every turn until his leader turned up, and never falling to the heavy stubber. A real hero, until he ran out of ammo after two turns of shooting.

On another note, my rotating bridge had been built by this time, and was ready to use, although not fully painted. It received a lot of ooh's and aah's when it was placed on the table. I'll post some more photos, with an article on the next stage of it's construction soon.

Rotating bridge - part 1

2009-03-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

I've been browsing a UK terrain site (TerraGenesis - http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/ ) lately, and was inspired to begin a new terrain piece for my necromunda collection. Thanks go to Gary James for the brilliant Toll Bridge he built, which I am now attempting my version of using the Bitz and materials I have lying around at home.

The basic materials for this project are shown below. Brass rod, Plastic Card, 20 mm dowel, custom wood, a large washer, and a piece of plastic tube.

This is the main shaft that supports the bridge, without the piece of plastic tubing that sits on the washer to allow the bridge movement.

The pieces of brass rod have been glued to the lower piece of the bridge itself, and some card detailing has been added to the upper surface.

That's as far as the project reached on the first session of making it. I will post more as I continue with the bridge.

Wednesday's Necromunda

2009-03-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

I got involved in a vicious scanvengers game of necromunda at the club las wednesday (25/3/09). with John. He had an orlock gang that was just starting out, going up against my large, experienced Dark Roughnecks gang from my own House Lanfear (shameless ripoff of the name from Robert jordan's Wheel of Time series).
With a large open platform in the center of table, courtesy of Worldworks Platform Command:Red Sector package, Johns Heavy Stubber had a commanding view of my setup. Luck was with him, as his heavy starting hosing down my gangers from my second turn. John used the Overwatch rule to great effect, dropping my marksman in my second turn, and surviving four turns of ammo rolls through the game. The stubber inflicted seven hits all up through the course of the game before running out of ammo.
At ground level John didn't fare quite so well, as the roughnecks two plasma guns methodically cut down his Orklocks (as he decided to call them).
The first close combat began on turn six, as the Roughnecks leader, Derrick, and the gang's only juve (Stev) charged the two Orklocks attempting to flank them. Derrick got dropped due to his loweres weaponskill from a hand wound, while Stev dropped his target. Second round of combat saw a standoff between Stev and the Orklock ganger, with the Orklock juve getting back to his feet. with the third round of combat Stev showed his true combat skills (WS 4), dropping the ganger, then the juve in a single turn.
After advice from others John wisely decided to bottle, leaving us both with two loot counters each.
We ran out of time to carry the post game duties, so we will complete them next week, after which Ash will come looking to reclaim the ganger I captured from his Eschers a week ago.
The picture below is the oustanding Stev, who will become a full ganger once experience is added on.

Project Menoth

2009-03-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

I'm almost ready to begin assembling my Menoth Army for Warmachine. In the picture above you can see what I now have for my army. The three blisters in the midle are a repenter warjack, The Wrack and Kreoss. The four in the middle painted white a re the Menoth starter box. The two black figures on the right are mercenary solos, while on the left are Severius and the exemplar seneschal. The two boxes are flameguard cleansers, and knights exemplar.

Random Conversion

2009-03-16T00:50:00.000-07:00

Ideas for conversions can come at the strangest time. I've been mulling over entering TAG's Bloodbowl league for over month, trying to decide which of my teams I'm going to use. I'm an accomplished player with lizardmen, but I don't like the new rules for the stunty skill, which now limits the effectiveness of my skinks.

I finally decided that I would take my Orc team into it, with the intention of rupturing the opposition with brute force, rather than winning through skill. Two weeks after deciding on the orcs, and idea came to me in the shower. Why not include a model of the teams coach. I thought a bit about what an Orc Bloodbowl coach should have, and decided that a whip to encourage the team would be appropriate. Being cheap when it comes to things like that, I knew I had some old hero quest Orcs around (bought cheap off trade me), and old wire is in abundance around the house.

After work the following day, I hunted out the figures, found the wire, and got to work. I decided to make three.One for myself, and two for the other Orc players in the league. The biggest issue is that the three original figures all stood in identical poses, regardless of weapon. (two with mace, one with an axe.)

The first one I made, I removed the weapon hand, and reduced the mace to just the wooden handle. The shaft of the handle was drilled out with my pin vice. Approximately 5 cm of multi strand wire was stripped, and the wire twisted at one end, then super glued into the hole. After giving the glue time to set, I cemented the hand back on the orc's arm at ninety degrees to the original position, with the wire whip behind the orc. The loose strands of the wire were spread out, and angled down, so the coach appears to be ready to bring the whip forward to lash one his players.

The second coach used the same method, except I took the entire arm off, and repositioned it in front of the orc. This orc now looks like he is holding the whip in front of himself, possibly as a threat to one of his players.

The third coach took a little more work, as I wanted a different pose again. I removed the arm, and then the hand. The arm was then glued back on, with a rotation of about forty five degrees forward of the original. The hand (with new whip completed) was glued on at ninety degrees to its original position. The strands of the whip were than placed so it appears the coach is actually in the act of flogging a player (or a fan; lets face it, he is an orc).

Romans

2009-03-10T03:41:00.001-07:00

I finally got back to painting my 15 and 20 mm figures today, finishing some of the roman troops . The first picture is the eight 15mm romans that are now ready for basing.

The second is the 20mm that I plan to use for warmaster ancients.

What to do with leftover pieces from old kits

2009-03-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

I recently found a pair of tow ropes from a Tamyia kit I built years ago, and started thinking about what I was going to do with them. 24 hours later, the idea took shape in my mind, with the tow ropes being used as a loose rail for a hastily built bridge between two platforms for necromunda. As I was at work at the time, I couldn't do much about it, but when I got home, I found the pieces I needed - a sheet of plastic flooring cut into strips, 2 pillars from GW's cityfight sprues, and a tow rope from a GW Rhino sprue.

The first step was to cut a length of plasticard that was the full length of the bridge. The cable from the Rhino was next, just the shackles were kept. I then glued the three strips of pastic flooring in place, with spacers to prop the ends up, after leaving sufficient space to slide the bridge over the card platforms of my necromunda terrain. The cityfight pillars were added in the corners of one side, with the shackles wedged in position and glued.

The smaller shackles on the tamiya tow ropes were carefully cut at the peak of the shackle, and first the two were carefully joined together, followed by even more care easing the remaining ends over the larger shackles on the posts. The safety cable has not been glued to the shackles, and still swings free, even after painting. a day later I realised that I needed something to make it look like it had been put together hastily, with materials lying around. After a bit of thought, I decided to use the hubs I had left over from Space Marine bike squadrons.

I haven't tested it in a game yet, and when I do, I'll need to work out some rules for it, as I consider it to an unstable structure as far as the game goes.

Update

2009-02-21T00:44:00.001-08:00

I've been quiet for the last couple of weeks, as I haven't really got too much done with my backlog lately. Fortunately that changed today, when I finally finished my Haradrim Raiders, for LoTR. I don't play LoTR yet, but I did collect the magazine set, and am currently working through them, in addition to everything else I still have to paint.

One of the players at my local wargaming club(Timaru Armchair Generals) does play, and at some pointI'll ask him for a demo. After reading the magazines, I found that the aspect that interested me most was the warband style of play, where you have a small force, and can advance your troops so they become stronger, sort of Necromunda for Middle Earth.

On another subject, my mind started wandering to Battletech a couple of days ago. I'm not sure what prompted this, but it may have had something to do with my game of Epic Armageddon acouple of weeks ago, and the idea of using Titans. Anyway, I hunted up Battletech on the net, and found that classic Battletech, which I have, is now owned by a company called Catalyst Game Lab, and they have a number of downloads available for those who want to get started, but don't own a copy of Battletech. They can be found at this address on the net - http://www.classicbattletech.com/

Online games

2009-02-20T23:30:00.000-08:00

I've just added links to my two favourite free online games, with the links gadget.
These games are Astro Empires, where I have accounts on two servers. And the third game is Lords of War and Money.
If you decide to try the game, let me know by pm'ing me in game. My ingame name for these is Morgoth. (join Lords of War and Money, I get 500 gold when you reach 2nd level.)

Epic 40K

2009-02-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

Played my first game of Epic last night. I found it to be an enjoyable game, with a fast pace, although we were only using small forces.Beginners luck played a part in my victory, as I left Ash with just a dreadnought surviving at the end.
Good dice rolls lead to my flank attack rolling up a good part of his force. It would be interesting to try the game with a force other than the marines we used. Luckily Ash also has an Eldar force, and that would be worth trying.
At present I have no plans to buy an epic force, as I plan to concentrate money on two games only this year, those being Necromunda and Warmachine

Where did today go.

2009-01-29T19:47:00.000-08:00

I've just spent the afternoon photographing most of my completed collection of Miniatures, and still haven't touched my fantasy collections, or my 1:72 world war 2 figures. My Vampire Counts army is in several locations in the house, and my bloodbowl is currently stored at a friends place, as it is being used for a bloodbowl league, and my current interest is non-existent at present. Storing it a my friends place is also revenge, as I have some of his gear at my place, and can't offload it back to him.

On another note, I finally finished my second Death Company squad for my Blood Angels. This squad has jumppacks, so that I can get them into combat faster. It might be a while before I get to use them, but at least they are ready.

Warhammer 40K

2009-01-29T01:55:00.000-08:00

When I took up 40K as a game, it was still in 2nd edition, and my decision was to make a Blood Angels Space Marine force. I've stuck with them through to 5th edition so far,reorganizing the structure of the army as I go. With the current edition, I've created a masterlist of what I have, and at present, My list extends to 7000 points. This includes multiple incarnations of the command staff.I started adding images to the masterlist, which is why I included the photo shown here. I have a similar masterlist for my Tyranid Army, which is still only at 4th edition organization, and plan to add images to that also.

History

2009-01-26T23:32:00.000-08:00

Funny how the past always comes back. The book in the picture is the one that started me as a wargamer. I originally read it just after I started high school. About a month ago I was surfing through Trademe, and found a copy of it for sale.
I've acquired a lot of rule sets, and miniatures since reading that book, but I now have a copy of it, for old times sake.

first post - intro

2009-01-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

This is the start of my blog, so I guess some info on what I plan to do with it would be in order.
As an avid wargamer I intend to place details of the my armies, games and projects in here. I named this after the Necromunda campaign I am creating, so expect a lot of necromunda to appear early on.
I am also just starting an army for Warmachine, so that will also get mentioned.