donderdag 31 oktober 2019

Zeon paint test vehicles

Today, I have some test case models for my 6mm "Gundam" force in Future War Commander (using the CAV Open Market list for the rules).

And those are some vehicles to try out the colours I want them to be fielded in.


Now, going by the Origins anime, the Zeon forces where all a rather dull grey, which works well on large scale models as you have the markings to add detail to them, but at this tiny scale they wouldn't have to much effect.

So to that order, I added some Olive to the light grey colourscheme the vehicles tend to be painted in according to the anime.  This breaks up the pattern a bit and makes it more pleasing to the eye.


The "lucky candidates" for the test where an (incomplete, I lost the roof gun over the years) Bison support tank from the Neo Soviet range of Brigade Models, as well as two ww2 armoured cars which will now serve as recce units for the force.

I'm rather fine with how the colour test turned out, and it is not to intricate to prevent mass painting of the forces once I have moved and gotten round to it, probably during the AHPC to make up a weekly entry.

Sieg Zeon!

woensdag 30 oktober 2019

What I painted in October 2019

So, this is a very good month on the painting level, because this month, the kitchen was installed, and now the place is nearing it's completion stages.

Yes, next month we are moving in in the half of the month...

That also means I'm slowly starting to pack up my figures and stuff now, and the paints are being tucked away in boxes to go to the new Mancave.

But I did manage to finish some larger projects, as in I also completed more troops of Minas Tirith, as that cleared up a lot of space on my desk.



Not only those good guys where done this month, but a regular orc with standard also joins the ranks of the Mordor force.

Furthermore, 3 Mordor Uruk-hai join the fray, not to boost the force per se, but allowing me to field the Cirith Ungol Battle Company now as well.


Small scatter terrain has also been added this month, the first being these two plastic pillars.
As well as a demonic sacrificial altar


A little 30 models as such to the tally this month... whom can go straight into the carry cases to move houses.

dinsdag 29 oktober 2019

The Shattering of a Legion

It is over.  The Emperor's Children have left my possession and moved to a new owner.

I have been thinkering a LONG time with the idea, for various reasons I touched upon on this blog a multitude of times in the past year.


Library sized moving for a game, constant revisions of the rules, those where just some of the reasons I got "burned out" playing Chaos Marines, combined with the fact I have been doing so for years already.  No, it was time for something else with less books and less FAQ hassle, so I decided to stick to my Battlesuits Tau force a while ago.

And now I found a new adoptive parent for the pink brigade, so three moving boxes later, they are off to a new life.  That I also didn`t need to pack them up a such for the house move or to take them to the BnB on Crisis is, well, a bonus.

And when I just couldn`t get round to painting even 5 figures in the past two months, I knew the drive for the force has ebbed away for good...


For the "history books", I fielded it in this current edition a total of 23 times (so that`s about a game a month since the edition appeared, not counting multi-players and such), of which 15 where victorious, a win ratio as such of 65% or about 2 out of every 3 battles I played, including an undefeated record in our club league.

The army gave me joy during 8th, but it had just ran it's course...

maandag 28 oktober 2019

Avanti Savoia! - the tiny edition

As you could read a few weeks ago on this blog, Nemesis and me are dipping our toes into historical again, and this time in scale 6mm and the Blitzkrieg Commander rules.

Like with Flames of War back in the days, I looked at all the lists, but in the end I got dranw in once again by that beloved army of mine, the Italians.

Now, the book fetaures a variety of Italian army lists, to cover their participation ranging from the invasion of France at the beginning of the war over the african theatre, the expedition to Russia and the defence of Italy itself, so that is quite a variety of lists I can choose from.  And this should give me forces up to the capitulation of Italy in 1943 as a result.


I have as such been looking and planning for building a force for each of the theatre lists as a result, and while the North African list will probably become the biggest one of those, I'm going to be buying and painting models for every one of them, though some like the Balkan list will only be small 1000 point or such side affairs.  But it does add for some nice variety and will force me to use units I can't or won't be using otherwise due to just being "not good" (though, well, "good" and "Italians" aren't usually taken in the same sentence if one generally talks world war 2 gaming anyways).

So expect to see some posts about the build up of the forces over the coming months as a result, as they will be appearing moe frequently between all the Lord of the Rings and The 9th Age that are my main paint targets for 2020...

zondag 27 oktober 2019

Empire of Sonnstahl planned starter force

Amongst all the Middle-Earth and 6mm violence planned for 2020, another project I want to complete is getting (at last) into the 9th Age.


Now as my "big army" general has already been painted up, the initial plan to learn the rules is to build the force of the "Quick Start" rules as the core of the army.

From there on onwards, I can then start to expand the whole army to build something to my tastes (read: cannons), so I went to look at the download section and see what exactly I could incorporate into the army / need to buy / need to paint.

On a character level, I will need a Marshal and a Wizard.  Both I can cover with the Bushido characters I already have lying around, so that is just a painting job.


On a basic troop level, I will need both a regiment of 20 heavy infantry, which I`ll be buying from Titan Forge, and a regiment of 10 handgunners, which are already lying around here somewhere in the packed up movement boxes.


A bit of a more "heavier" investment will be the Knightly order regiment, as those aren`t cheap from Titan Forge, but I`ll get them hopefully soonishly, maybe even at Crisis already if the clean up sale on the bring and buy goes smoothly.

And that is it, nothing else is needed to build this small force and learn the ropes of the game, so investment wise in money that will be arranged rather swiftly.

And then to get it all painted up...


vrijdag 25 oktober 2019

On the Painting Desk 117

The Shaman is done!  That is the good news for this episode.

The bad news, I won`t be able to attend the tournament in the end, as the kitchen will be delivered those days so the renovations prioritise.  Noshi isn`t allowed any physical labour anymore, so it`s down to this old geezer now in solo modus.

As you can see, the desk is getting emptier and emptier, and those Morannon`s are going to be the last figures painted in the old room before all the paint is packed up for the move.


So that means 9 more miniatures will be "born" here before this chapter of life closes down...

See you next week!

Some Small Pillars

A small painting post today, as some little pieces of scatter terrain have been completed.

Nothing to fancy, these are two plastic pillars which received some drybrushing in order to go onto the tabletop.

I believe they are the old GW ones, but I don`t dare say that with 100% certainty though.

Anyways, it`s good to hide some archer or the likes behind when they sneak upon their opponents...

woensdag 23 oktober 2019

Sacrificial Altar

Another small piece of scatter terrain got finished from the painting line, in the form of this altar to sacrifice the captives to some dark god.

The model is a 3d print found on thingiverse, and it was a pain to paint with all those spikey parts on the sides.

But in the end, it did turn out rather okay to litter the tabletop as perhaps a scenario objective or such.


Blitzkrieg Commander 4th Edition

After playing Future War Commander for more then a decade now in 6mm, Nemesis and I decided to (finally) get the historical version as well.

And the 4th edition had just been brought out this year.

Now, over those years, the Commander series has been acquired by Pendraken and the BKC book has had an overhaul compared to the old books.  Three things immediatly caught my eye flicking through the book after receiving it.


1. The paper has changed.  It seems thinner but glossier then the older editions of the books.  While this makes it look a lot more "high end" then the older ones, I doubt it will stand the time just as well from constant flicking through pages.

2. It is sleeker in appearance, with a lot of colour pictures and "decorated sections" in the rules, like for example the scenarios, who used to be just black and white blocks of text in the old ones.

3. It doesn't come with the handy cardboard summary sheet.  There is a free download for it though on the website, so not to bad, but it was a handy tool for your games.

Taking a look at the book and rules themselves, these are easily caught up with if your familiar with the FWC rules, and the book follows the same structure.  Perhaps the biggest differences are the "scheduled phase" whee pre-planned artillery barrages and airstrikes occur in, and the fact all the profiles have both an AT and AP value for their shooting.  That is definitly an improvement over the old # and * system of the old ones.

The same goes for the special rules.  They are still listed in the notes, but instead of being repeated after each army list, they just are all put together in the beginning of the army list section.

Talking those lists, there are 44 in total, and of course the big nations have multiple lists, each for a different theatre and often period of the war.  But for pick up games, every list can play every list, though if you want to play "more or less accurately", not only do you have the theatre then, but also some units that can't be used before or after a certain date in that particular list as units phased out or brought in as reinforcements.

Now, Nemesis has his eyes on Germans, Russians and Japanese forces, but I'll probably be sticking to my, oh suprise, beloved Italians for the system.  And considering how cheap 6mm is (0.65 GBP for a tank for example at Heroics and Ros) I'll probably end up with a force from EVERY Italian list in the book...

The book definitly looks the deal flicking through it, and a more in depth reading of the book will be taking place very soonish (as I plan to grab some forces at Crisis in a few weeks) but armed with the knowledge of playing the sci-fi variant of them there shouldn't be to much problems in getting those first games out and rather smoothly running.

A good purchase for sure, and one that will be bringing some hopefully fun games to the table!

dinsdag 22 oktober 2019

Firing up those cardgame numbers again...

Okay, so we are all settled in, we have made selections in which armies could move along and which ones went to new owners... and now we have a heap of additional free time (at least until the little hobbit arrives) and a private schedule that is totally overhauled.


I realize I won't be able to get to the club anymore every friday, even though my presence was already slaughtered during the whole renovations and pregnancy cycle... but I need my geek out moment so it's time to go on that occassional draft again.

This will be by participating in MTG game events on low scale left and right, in the beginning by doing drafts and perhaps in the far future playing some standard again, as I'll be rebuilding one of my "25 dollar mono-red deck" decks again to do just that.  No thinking required, just boom boom boom and win or lose in 15 minutes games.  It worked in the past...

I'll also be dabbling my toes a bit in other "sanctioned" cardgames along the road, but all of them will be without any ambition bar trying to get rid off the non used cards along the way, to prevent it all stacking up skyhigh once again as it used to.


It's also something very space efficient to be honest...

maandag 21 oktober 2019

Armies on Parade 2019: Parade Day Games Workshop Antwerpen

The past saturday, it was Parade Day again at the local Games Workshop, as Armies on Parade reached it's annual height.

Unfortunatly, while I had planned and painted to enter with an MESBG force, it was not to be this year.

We had a date with this lovely little fellow today...

Never the less, I did drop by to get my White Dwarf, and while it was still rather early in the day and not all participants had probably arrived yet, there where already some lovely armies on display.






I personally liked the Undead the most (as for that matter, so did Noshi), but I`m curious about who else entered and who won.  I`ll be eyeing their facebook page for that matter this week...


And next year, I`ll be present again for sure!

zondag 20 oktober 2019

White Dwarf October 2019

Another month, and while I wasn`t able to attend this year's Parade Day, I did drop by the store to pick up the newest copy of the magazine.

And as always, I`m doing a flickthrough, marking in bold the articles that intrest me and I`ll be having a look at later on.

As always, it starts with the Editorial, Contact and Reader's Models.

And then we go to the Worlds of Warhammer, Phil Kelly's column that tackles forty facts about AoS this time round.

The Age of Sigmar section itself kicks off with Rules of Engagement, Jervis takes a look at the Luck factor in our games this issue.

Two sets of rules this month, one for AoS and one for 40k, and with the Tome Celestial we kick off with the AoS one: The Host of Syll'Esske, a Slaaneshi demon force.  And of course a joining Paint Splatter.

The Duality of Vengeance is a piece of fiction about Slaanesh followers, tying in nicely with the above.

In Fantastical Realms it is time this month to take a look at the Realm of Heaven, Azyr.

Moving on to the 40k section of the magazine, Echoes of the Warp looks at design goals and philosophies behind mass battle games.

In Engage and Slay, a fiction piece, the Sisters of Silence move into action, because...

... the second big piece of rules is for them this month in Index Imperialis and Paint Splatter.

A Tale of Four Warlords returns with it's Vigilus edition, as the armies continue to grow.

Kill team also gets new rules, as one can now use Vanguard marines from the Shadowspear box in the game.

In Kitbash, Battlefield Modifications takes a look at how to tailor these Vanguard for the skirmish scale game and give them each a unique flavour.

Glory Points takes a look at the newest season of Underworlds, as Beatsgrave has arrived.

More Specialist rules are presented with Big Dakka for Hire, allowing you to use Orks in Blackstone Fortress as a retinue character, as well as a new scenario.

The Golden Demon Winner's Challenge continues with another heap of mindboggling pieces of art.

In the Black Library section, we get a first look at the new Warhammer Horror series, with the short piece Six Doors to Darkness.

This months Battle Report is one for Aeronautica Imperialis, and why the hell did they scale up from 6mm (epic) to the unfitting 8mm scale... I would have bought the kits like badshit crazy had they been the old scale (same for Titanicus btw).

More Imperialis with the Judgement Squadron campaign this month as well.

Necromunda also gets his share, as the Enforcers are attacked in their own headquarters in a newly presented scenario series.

And we round out with the Inside the Studio column.

Not really that interesting for me personally, as none of the new rules apply to a game or force I play myself, but it is not a bad issue in itself, with not only both main systems getting new rules, but a nice palette for the specialist games as well.

And next month, the Inquisition arrives... yup, AGAIN Imperials for 40k *sigh*


zaterdag 19 oktober 2019

The Haul Report 202

Reading time!

And as it is half the month, the new White Dwarf has arrived, so expect the flick through review on monday as well.

But more importantly, my and Nemesis order arrived from Pendraken, after years of Future War Commander, it`s time we start dabbling into historicals as well now.

So that`s a nice haul of reading material this week!


vrijdag 18 oktober 2019

On the Painting Desk 116

Okay, time for speed painting...

It seems the LOTR tournament I had been preparing a force for has been raised from 700 to 900 points this year, so I urgently need some minor character or two to command more rabble.

To that end, I started work on the Mordor shaman that has been standing on the desk for a while now, as he should be enough in points to drag me in an operational mode.

And I've been painting up some more Morannon's to go with it to boot...

Ah, deadlines, ugh... but I have to see to get him ready by next update.

Cirith Ungol Uruk-hai

Nothing to spectacular in this post to be honest, as these are the first Uruk-hai of Cirith Ungol that I painted up.

Now, I keep "paint logs" for my models, to have references when I paint up more of certain troops in the future, and these models have been the first of it's kind as a try out for the colour scheme.

In the future, I will be painting up at least some more of his brethren as well as their "leader" Shaggrath, but for now, these three are the ones needed for the Cirith Ungol battle company to be finished.

For a "full" army, the list shares a lot of units with Mordor / Barad-dur / Angmar in the end, so if one builds a large army of Mordor, one can field one of the others just as well, as only some characters or a small unit left or right diversify the forces mainly consisting of orcs...

And as such, these add 25 points to my Mordor force...

donderdag 17 oktober 2019

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

You know that feeling.  It's saturday evening, some flick comes on on cable television, and you are to lame to put on Netflix or something else so you just keep watching the thing?


Well, that is exactly what happened for this movie when they played it on Q2, so Zac Efron and Anna Kandrick could do the job of trying to make me grin, let alone laugh...

Mike and Dave are two irresponsible siblings, and the cause for many a family gathering going deep south.  But when their little sister Jeannie gets married, they are forced to bring decent girls as dates.  To that end, they put out an add on Craigslist and it goes viral very swiftly, causing two friends, tatiana and Alice, to pretend to be what they look for and go to Hawai for free.

Pretend, because they are actually two rather wild, alcohol fueld, party drug imbibing, "ladies" instead of the decent dates they are looking for.  Soon the wedding starts to get screwed up, for example when a quad bike crashes against the bride, or a masseuse climaxes same bride under the eyes of Mike...


So with the wedding cancelled, it's up to the foursome to get it all sorted out again and make amends, while realising they need to put their own lifes back on track as well...

I admit, it was rather funny.  Not hilarious like the Naked Gun or sorts, but it had a good entertainment value... for a cable movie.

woensdag 16 oktober 2019

Wu Assassins

A Netflix original series, styled in the "over the top" Hong Kong made kung-fu series, this was the latest series discovery me and Noshi made on the streaming channel.


And the added bonus of Katheryn Winnick (Lagertha) is well taken ;-)

Kai is a simple chef in Chinatown, his only dream being to own his own foodtruck.  But one day, he is selected by the mysterious Dao to become the 1000th and final Wu Assassin, a champion that must defeat the warlords of the 5 elements (fire, water, metal, wood and earth) who are out to destroy the world.

Together with his friends he is pulled deeper into the plot, which seemingly revolves around their Triad leader family (and Fire Wu) Uncle Six, who himself is trying to maintain his grip against the insurrection of the mob led by Alec McCullough.  However, this turns out to be a fallen Wu Assassin, who became the Wood Wu to try and save his family that was lost in the war 500 years ago.


The series has some fantastic fight scenes (I personally loved the pilot one!) and the pace of the story doesn't slack down to much over the course of the series, granting some good entertainment.

Definitly worth to check out!