What I painted in August 2018

With the first of two holiday containing months behind me, lets look back at which figures are added to the painted collection none the less.

So it was a calm month due to that, but at least I got some things done...

The first of them is a model I always loved, Sophia Illmora of the Anima Tactics line, who will be part of my Heretics and Renegades detachment of Slaaneshi forces.  I just think she is one of the coolest figures I ever possessed to be honest, as she has that great anime feel...

Slaanesh be pleased this month, as I finished the Altar Terrain piece, on which I will be adding memento's from forces I`ve defeated in games with my Slaaneshi forces.

Next some scatter terrain and objective markers, nothing special at all but you just need to have those little thingies anyways in your games.  A lot of them are for Burrows and Badgers, a result of some demo table building me and Noshi did this month.  Because the 29th of september, we will be presenting the game at our clubs Open Day.

Talking scenery, I also restored two of those ruined aquarium ornaments I gotten a while back for use in Burrows and Badgers, and about that game, the first of the figures I have has been completed as well, a Pirate Shrew from their range as well as the very characterfull Mole priest.

Noshi also completed her first house of the Warbases.co.uk range, the Timber Barn.  She made some nice touch ups to the MDF model, adding wooded roofing and all.

Another "classic" piece painted up, this old Gondorian ruin by Games Workshop has also been completed.

After sitting in my "to do" pile for nearly 6 years, as I got it at Crisis 2012, this large ziggurat piece has been finished as well.

Of course, we also needed a mouse like figure for the scenario objective, and we settled on perhaps the most famous rodent in the world...

Softplastic figures from the local supermarket collecting action, these little guys are ideal NPC`s for use in Burrows...

The final additions for this month is Mercator, one of our Crisis figures from the past shows, and Decoster, who was our figure back in 2015.

And that`s it for this month, a total of 27 figures painted this month in the end, in no small part thanks to my beloved partner Noshi who helped out a lot.  September will be calm as well with the Mallorca holiday on the horizon, but afterwards I`ll try and pick up the pace some more again.

To bring more Burrows and Badgers to the table, in order to get that demo game going!

Scenario Objective: Pikachu!

The scenario me and Noshi are going to demo at the open day, will be a variant on the special Mouse-Hunt scenario that came as an extra with the Burrows and Badgers rulebook.

The name will of course be changed to Gotta Catch 'Em All, but instead of the Gromley model, we are using this small Gashapon (japanese UFO catcher toys) figure of the most famous rodent in the world, Pikachu.

The figure has only been based, not painted, to keep with it's cute anime look, but the reason for including it and making it the central figure is twofold: to appeal to the audience of course in the first place, and to make it a bit of tongue in cheek, clearly identifiable, objective.  As both sides will be playing with the model during the scenario, it's a great little figure to hobble around with on the field of battle as such.

Now to work on the actual warbands and complete them...

Herbert the Rooster

The next civilian for the Burrows and Badgers board, hauling from the softplastic Boerdereis series, is Herbert the Rooster.

The model is one of those soft plastics I showed off in the haul reports of the past weeks from the local supermarket, and comes dressed up nicely as a sort of "noteable" in the hamlet.

I once again went for the three tone treatment on this figure, and gave him a pale olive vest to contrats nicely with it's brown and black feathers.  A smooth and quick paintjob as these little toy models lend themselves nicely to this, that makes already two inhabitants done for the still not named town on the battleboard.

Onwards to the next one it is now...

Near-Sighted Nobbit, Mole Priest

The second figure of my Burrows and Badgers collection to be completed, Nobbit is the mole priest sculpt.

Looking like he tries to influence the masses, he will become the spellcaster of my small warband as such.

I really like this model, it has a very strong dynamic radiating of it, and I painted in the book as well for the little guy.

This now means 2 out of the 6 needed models are done for our demogame, so with about three weeks, and 6 painting sessions to go, it should be nicely feasible to complete all the models and the scenery for said game sans probleme.

On to a squirrel now!

Boku no Hero Academia season 1

A 13 episode counting first season, I binged through this on two evenings.

See, the deal is Noshi likes it, and in order to watch season 2 with her, I have to catch up and as such, I did now :-)

Plot (from MAL)

The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual.

Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!

Enduring many months of grueling training, Izuku enrolls in UA High, a prestigious high school famous for its excellent hero training program, and this year's freshmen look especially promising. With his bizarre but talented classmates and the looming threat of a villainous organization, Izuku will soon learn what it really means to be a hero.

What I liked about it

* It`s a fun little show, which allows itself to be watched pretty easily enough, and with some great jokes and stereotypes.
* "Tsu"

What I didn`t like about it

* The general "Yu-gi-Oh" generation of anime "connaisseurs" claims this is better then Tiger and Bunny... it isn`t. *Period*

And now Noshi, let`s see that second season!

Gondorian Ruins

Another piece of scenery I painted "just in case" for the Burrows and Badgers table, though it probably won`t be used this time round, is one of the old Gondor ruins.

I still had this lying around after all those years, and while I lost the small walkway piece for the corner, it remains to me one of the most beautiful pieces of scenery GW ever produced.

The simpleness of being just a corner, coupled to the intricate design of the pillars and archway, makes these small thingies just look fantastic, and I`ve decided to be on the look out for those little models whenever I come across them on Bring and Buys.

And try to resist buying the new game when it comes out again, as while it remains Tolkien, I have no opponents for this at TSA unfortunatly... a "pain" I felt ever since the very first edition came out...

Or perhaps...

White Fang

A 2018 french made animation movie, Noshi and me stumbled upon this one through Netflix.

So we sat back and had a look...

Plot

White Fang is a smart and independant wolf dog pup, whom together with his mom lives in the wild.  While looking for food, he becomes involved with humans, and goes on the adventure of a lifetime while serving three very different masters over the course of this.

From being a respected sleddog, to a fearsome dogfighter and a companion to a lawman, White Fang is doing his best to serve them all to his best of abilities.

What I liked about it

* the gorgeously "painted" animated style

What I didn't like about it

* this might not be the ideal family movie, as it has some very tragic moments...

A fine find on Netflix, and worth the watch for the story and the painting style especcially.

TSA Barbeque... and Bugman's Bar

On the 25th, the annual TSA barbeque took place at the clubhouse.

Combined on a playing saturday, we hosted about 50 people for a fest of burned meat and raw veggies.

While me and Nemesis took this opportunity to try out Kill Team, there was also a Frostgrave game and a cycling game going on before we sat down for foodies.

In which Nemesis wasn't to be beaten and he was the very first locked and loaded...

Afterwards, our table pulled up Bugman's Bar, the boardgame by Games Workshop in which a bunch of drunken Dwarves tried to bring food and drinks to their table in the chaos of a barfight, so that was quite a fitting game for the evening.

Mike took the victory against his family, Noshi, Heikki and Nemesis, while I taped a 15 minute or such action tape around the middle of the game.  Yes, it's in dutch, and at some comments it might be better that perhaps you don't actually understand what is said if your not fluent in the Antwerp dialect xD.

Another nice sit together it was, and one of those chances to have some socialising done at the club...

Scatter Terrain for Burrows and Badgers

Another set of scatter terrain has been finished, by Noshi this time, from the big red box of old stuff I showed a few weeks ago.

To be used on our demo table, it contains a few bits and bobs suitable for littering around the hamlet.

These barrels and crates are all resin made models I obtained years ago at some convention, I believe it was in Lille around 2011 IIRC, and now have been touched up and strong toned to serve on the battlefield.

The Eagle is an old figure I once bought just as "token" next to my Iron Brigade in the ACW half a dozen years ago ('Old Abe'), but who know will become part of the river on the game board...

This is looking good for the table...

Kill Team: Emperor's Children vs Death Guard

Past saturday there was an extra opening day at TSA and the yearly barbeque, and me and Nemesis took this opportunity to try out the Kill Team game.

Yes, mine are basic Chaos Space Marines, but I refuse to call them anything else then Emperor's Children, nah!

Okay, and we probably got some things wrong, as we played learning the rules on the go...

My team consisted of an Aspiring Champion, a Heavy Gunner with heavy bolter, a Sniper Gunner with plasmagun, a Zealot with bolt pistol and chainsword and a Marine with bolter.  To bulk it out, there was also a cultist contignent of a champion with shotgun, a heavy stubber and 4 cultists.

Nemesis brought his Deathguard with a Champion, a Combat specialist with heavy cleaver, a Gunner with heavy flamer and a Marine, joined by 2 Poxwalkers.  And with these guys ignoring first fleshwounds on top of their T5 and Disgusting rules, they are even MORE irritating to put down then their 40k equivalents.

The table was set up using the MDF scenery the club bought past Crisis.

We went for the very first Open Play mission in the book, Aerial Strike, and I came up as the defender.

With both forces deployed, I'm in for a job of 5 turns trying to prevent the Nurgle forces of smashing the three objectives scattered on the table.

My forces started by solidifying their positions around the objectives, in an effort to put down any Nurgle troops strolling into sight.  The Sniper plasmagunner took down one of his Specialists first, netting me a first point.

But retaliation was swift, as the cultist champion was taken out of action, swiftly followed by a regular cultist.

But at the end of the turn, I was 1-0 in the lead.

On turn 2, my forces manouvred for better firing lines, but the toughness and rules of the Death Guard made my shooting next to useless, while duo of poxwalkers locked the heavy bolter in combat.

The Marine took one of the walkers out of action, but was as such stuck with the other one, who then destroyed the nearby objective 3 and bringing the followers of Papa Nurgle on a 1-2 lead.

Turn 3 is on, and my Zealot charges the Aspiring Champion lurking under the platform, while the Cultist rushed the second poxwalker and took it actually out in one heroic, bayonet driven charge.

The Zealot however made a perfect fool of himself, getting squished to a pulp by a powerfist after missing with all his attacks, and giving Nemesis another point.

The result at the end of the turn being that the Death Guard is now in a 1-3 lead.

The champion then came up on the platform, and rushed the heavy stubber who has been shooting paintball bullets all the time it seemed.

In the meantime, the heavy flamer took down the heavy bolter before it had a chance to open up, yielding yet another point to Nemesis.

The poor cultist never stood a chance, and was flattened swiftly as well.

It now stood 1-4 for the Death Guard, and with his forces closing on the second objective it might become a close call to keep them off.

His heavy cleaver charged my Aspiring Champion, though his Champion failed his charge.  I then used a demonic host stratagem, but it only caused a flesh wound on the combat specialist.    On the same manner the plasmagunner, lining up close and overcharging his rifle on his champion, only managed to do the same.

The combat turned out to nothing, and he failed his roll to take down objective 1, so I got to add 4 points for two non-destroyed targets and lifting me to a 5-4 victory.

It could have gone totally different in the last turn, as either he could have destroyed the target for 2 points, or me taking out his two specialists for 2 points... close call in either direction.




Questions to look up

* Is there a sight arc, because under movement it says that models in order to ready can't even pivot, but there is nothing about arcs in the book as we looked around for.

* Can you destroy the objectives even locked in combat?  The scenario at least doesn't say it isn't possible.

But in the end, with a lot of searching after rules and seeing how the game went, it took us about an hour and a quarter to play; so once we have the rules under the knee, these short games should be good "evening fillers".