What I painted in May 2017

The first full month back in the painting hobby, and it was quite a decent production, in general thanks to a couple of long weekends and a heat wave from which I hid inside.

And all that resulted in no less then 65 miniatures getting painted.

Now, for the regular tabletop figures, I aim to do a "2 tone" colour scheme, and I won`t be painting eyes anymore, they would end up crosseyed anyways then lol.

The first things I finished this month where some figures for the small Daughters of Khaine force that I`ll eventually finish, but there is no pressure on them.

The next thing that got finished was my first "true" regiment of the new life, with the AWI British Line Infantry, numbering 24 strong.

Bit of an ego bump, as they got picked up over Twitter by an actual Royal Welsh Fusiliers museum.

Suited for the same era, though technically a French-Indian war blister pack, are these armed colonists.

The main "job" though this month was painting up the 25 models of the Irish starter band for SAGA, consisting of 4 points of troops and the warlord.

Now I need to expand with another 2 points on those, and I got my first "battle worthy" force completed and I can go look for picking up a game left or right.  Nicely on schedule for july / august as I`d hoped when I restarted in the hobby.

Next month, the main target is a first regiment for my ACW corps, so time to crack out those blue paints :-) .

Miniature Wargames 410

Another magazine I picked up this week, even though I went to the bookstore for the Wargames Illustrated, but it hadn`t arrived yet.

No problem, I grabbed this one instead, mostly because of the Salute coverage (in which they managed to misprint my clubs name, TIN soldiers of Antwerp as TOY soldiers of Antwerp *sigh*).

But let`s have a look at things that cuaght my eye instead.  In the new releases pages, there is a whole new range of washes, a paint system popular these days (it wasn`t around in this form when I quit, only a single tone and it was *new* back then).

The next article is an interview with the Aliens vs Predator game, not my "thing"

The next article however definitly caught my fancy.  A piece on asymetric warfare in the Rules of Engagement by Andy Copestake, and how (in historicals) this can provide a whole new set of challenges in creating scenarios.

The main liner is a full game ruleset for a Zulu game, again not my thing, but I love how the magazine uses "from the collection of..." pictures instead of professional painted models all way round.

Next there is a scenario for Airfix Battles, and then we move to the Fantasy and Sci-fi section of Darker Horizons (hey, I remember that, that existed back in my days).

The Gondolin painting is a lovely article, but it seems these days that the black undercoat technique is "out of fashion" according to the writer of the article.   I`ll remain old skool!!!!

Apart from that we have an article on a chat with the Frostgrave designers and two "unique" cards for the game, and the plethora of releases in the genre.

And then we get to the big part of the Salute coverage.  An intresting plethora of pictures and some nice comments (well, apart from the name boo-booh, see above) for those that weren`t there.

Next in the issue (well, apart from the extensive club listing) is the Recce section with an overlook of "regular" books that might intrest the wargamer.  After that, we move to the How to and build some LARGE scenery (54mm scale), and another intresting read in the Falkirk club presentation.

All in all, not really a good issue FOR ME personally, as the three articles that I enjoyed weren`t "period" related.

Turn season 1

Set against the background of the American War of Independance, Turn follows the story of spies in service for Washintgon, in order to fight off the british from the colonies.

This prestigious series by AMC counts 10 episodes in it's first season, and focusses mainly on how some childhood friends all get involved into this "job" for their liberty.

In Setauket, Long Island, Abraham "Abe" Woodhull, son of the magistrate, tries to build a quiet life for himself.  But with his childhood love, Anna Strong, he gets involved in the machinations to spy on the local troops.  His friends Caleb and Benjamin both serve in the Continental Army, and they enlist him and Anna in the service as the spy network is being build around New York.

In the meantime, the british try to keep Setauket under control, as major Hewlett tries to rule fair, but his subordinate, Captain Simcoe, is a raving madman.  In new York, John Andre is doing his own spy work and information gathering for the Crown, while Robert Rogers, of the famous Queen's rangers, is out to capture and kill Benjamin Tallmadge.

Now the series does take some serious liberties, like Abe and Anna having an affair, even thought the historical counterparts where both unmarried and had a big age difference.

Never the less, it's a very enjoyable show, and worth watching!

GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords

In the same year the excellent Transformers: the Movie came out, 1986, this not so excellent movie of the GoBots also appeared.

While it was actually half a year earlier in theatres, contrary to the Transformers movie this hadn`t spend years in production, and it shows.

Basically a glorified extra long episode of the series, it did spawn it's own toyline featuring robots that changed into... rocks.  that hop along on the surface of their planet...

The film begins when an unidentified asteroid lands on GoBotron, and contains an emmisary looking to enlist the aid of the GoBots in their war against Lord Magmar.  The renegades intercept this message though, and Cy-Kill and his forces move to "aid" Magmar in an effort to steal his superweapon to be.

On the planet, a battle erupts between both sides, and even though Cy-Kill manages to obtain the weapon, it is to powerful for him to control, but Leader-1 defeats him and they are defeated, as the GoBots return to Gobotron.

Now, the GoBots weren`t a rip-off of the Transformers, and the toyline even debuted before the well loved Robots in Disguise, making use of DiaClone models not adapted (well, they where in the future) into the toyline.  The figures where weak compared to some of the bigger Transformers, though they focused on the smaller figures like in the TF line (think the size of original SeaSpray and the likes), and they where cheaper when I was a kid.  Yes, I had quite a few of them, and some, like the top hat wearing limousine, where firm favorites of mine, looking even better then the Transformers, though that was more exception then rule.

But the movie, well, that ranks amongst the weaker toys as well: a hotch potch of badly connected plot points and crappy dialogue.

SAGA Irish Warband starter box painted

The first painting "goal" of the new start has been achieved, as I finished my SAGA starter Irish box yesterday.

This set, by Gripping Beast, grants you 25 models, and good for 4 points in the SAGA gamesystem, though of course I`ll be using them in a variety of game systems, as they are just that, dark age era Irish.

Now, said Fianna where once again painted in mostly mudded and earthly colours, but with some blues and such tossed in infrequently to better represent their higher status.

And that completes the full warband now, and they stand ready to march to war:

Now, the intricate weakness of the Irish is their general lack of armour, and in SAGA that makes them VERY vulnerable to enemy missile fire.  If you play in tournaments or tournament set up style tables, cover will be very limited and huge open spaces are probably predominant, so that is NOT a good position to be in.

To that end, I`ll be expanding the warband with it's two final points (6 seems to be the playing standard) with numbers over quality.  An additional unit of Bonnacht's and one of Kern's are on the shopping list now, giving me not only 20 additional figures, but some limited counter ranged attacks as well.

Worst case, they have to become "shields" then to get the better quality units into contact, though my main battle plan will probably revolve around trying to get the wardogs into enemy missile fire troops to disturb them...

I'll make sure to tell about the trashing defeats in the future!

Build Report: 30116 Rapunzel's Market Visit

In today's build report, I'm tackling a 2014 polybag from the Disney Princesses series.

This was a promotional set back then that you received if you spend 30 euro or something at "mini-doll" ranges (Friends, Princesses as Elves and DC didn`t exist yet).

The polybag, which contains one figure with the titular character, also contains the the instruction leaflet and about 30 pieces to make the stall.

The Rapunzel doll is nicely executed, and it wasn`t long before her long blond braid hair piece was used in a moc ;-)

The stall begins life as a 2x4 tan plate, to which a connector piece is added to become the towing hook.

As the wheel axles are attached, we place a brown plate on it to make it's "bottom", with bricks and curved pieces for the side.

Merchandise is then placed on this surface.

The sunscreen is then build using a mixture of blue and pink, and raised on pillars on the cart.

Some additional pieces came in this polybag as well.

Adding the wheels, the little set is then completed:

It`s a cute little polybag, and one of the better promotions in my eyes from the last years for sure.

Haul Report 83

Hello everyone to another weekly oversight of stuff I obtained for the hobby.

And other relevant geeky thingies ;-)

The first thing I picked up this week was a bit of light reading, in that I grabbed the may / june issue of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, on which I gave my 2 cents worth of opinion a few days ago on this blog.

A fun little thing was picked up by my mum at a garage sale, with some little pots from The Hobbit, and this for an absolute superb price of... FREE.  Free stuff is always cool.

Wayland Games delivered my first part of an order with them, in the form of a box of skirmishing ACW infantry, but the bases are still on back order unfortunalty. 

And that's about it for this week, a small and modest haul, but I can say already that this hobby is actually way cheaper then LEGO ;-).

Less "must have" buying pressure I think hehehehe...

SAGA Bonnachts

As I was watching a heap of movies while painting earlier this week (huzzah for multi-tasking), that means of course I got a couple of figures finished.

The first of the two remaining units I finsihed from my SAGA starter was the Bonnachts, or "regular warriors" for the force.

This unit numbers 8 warriors, primarily armed with javelins and I went for rather simple shield designs, keeping most of the more decorated shields for the Fianna. 

The occasional hand weapon was added in the mix for some variety, but the biggest difference with the hearthguard is the total lack of armour on these blokes, as the Irish had poor access to this.

Next up is the last unit of Fianna, who I just need to base and varnish, and the starterbox will be completed, making it just a case of thinking on how to expand the warband to the 6 point "battle ready" level.

Which, knowing me, will be more in the direction of Zhukov's famous "quantity is a quality in itself" and foregoing the more elite and flashy units like the heroes and all. 

Those will be for the general Dark Ages expansioning afterwards...

Doctor Strange

Another "victim" of my lazy thursday movie marathon this week, the Marvel Universe has entered the magical dimension.

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who really "feels" like Sorcerer Supreme Steven Strange, this is an origins movie and an dimensional introduction movie in one.

Following an accident that ruins his hands, top surgeon Steven Strange becomes depressed and tries to find ways to regain his skills.  When he learns of a paralyzed man that can walk again, he travels to Kamar-Taj and under the wings of Mordo and the Ancient One he learns the ways of... magic.

He learns faster then most sorcerers ever had due to his photographic memory, and he learns about the Dark Dimension.  He rushes to the defence of the London sanctum, holding of Kaecilius, a servant of the dark demom Dormammu.  Later on, Hong Kong becomes under attack and while it seems the heroes are outclassed, the creation of an infinite time loop, resulting in Strange being killed over and over again, forces Dormammu to strike a bargain with him in order to escape the loop.

This was a visually very impressive movie, think DiCaprio's Inception style of things going on.  Cumberbatch puts down a true Strange, and his comic vibe is very present but... of the heroes selected by the MCU, you now have TWO very arrogant, ego-tripping rich guys running around, in both Strange and Stark.  Which gives it a bit of a feel of "that thing again", compared to for example the Netflix "poorer background" heroes like Luke Cage.

But never the less, it was a very intresting movie and I for one will be happy to see Strange again in Thor: Ragnarok.

Recon: Secrets of the Sea - USS Monitor and CSS Hunley

This two part documentary, which can be seen for free online on channels like YouTube, is investigating the fate and recovery of two iconic ACW ships that changed the way of naval warfare.

You can take a look at the documentary HERE for example.

Both ships where "firsts" in their own way, even though they never faced each other, and both went to an unglorious end as they sank following watery conditions instead of being defeated in battle.  CSS Hunley was the first submarine vessel that made an armed attack on another vessel, and it's firing mechanism still hasn`t been unravelled with 100% certainty.

USS Monitor on the other hand was the first full ironbuild warship, which didn`t have any additional sails anymore and which changed the looks of sailing ships, both wooden or ironclads, to a thing of the past.

The documentary, which details both ships in both parts, follows not only their development and how they functioned, but also looks at the efforts that where made to finally rediscover and salvage their respective wrecks.

Hop over and you can enjoy this little masterpiece on ACW inventiveness.