November... time to make that final goal sprint

So it`s the first of november today, meaning the final two months of the year are upon us.

And what a year it has been for me, both with big changes in the private (professional) life, and the hobby life.

I guess the goal list in the sidebar reflects this, as did the previous article about this that I posted at the year`s halfway mark (more or less) in june.  So I did indeed focus in the past months, and been clearing out some stuff.  Okay, so Tolkien came back to play recently, but in a way that was a welcome change.

I feared I was getting a bit "pinked out" by the speed I started crawling for my Marines, so variety makes the palette.

Taking a look at all the goals I set for this year at that mark, I did move the Emperor's Children "subfactions" to the eternal list where the ACW used to be.  I won`t be finishing the set mark ups just yet, as I didn`t go on the shopping spree just yet to grab all the wanted models and units.  What won`t stop me from adding some stuff to it though still.

That, and I have been painting a lot of scenery (relatively for my doing) the last months with the Burrows and Badgers demogame.

The other two still open painting targets won`t be reached this year I guess, nor the Blood Bowl team, nor finish all the Crisis limited edition models, though I keep doing those last ones if I have "holes" in my painting line up.  Facts is, next month Noshi starts a new career and this might ruffle up a little in the painting time planning.


The final goal still open is harder, the read 25 books.  I made some "bad picks" this year which didn`t read smooth at all and caused me to read at a disasterous slow rate, but I still might finish the stack I have lying around though... barely.  That will be a close one.

So all in all, there are some hard targets still to reach, and I`ve already been thinking about those for the next year and what I want to get done.  But for now, let`s keep clearing that painting desk (which I just keep filling up at a higher rate then what I finish x-D).

What I painted in October 2018

Another month, and one where I tried to focus again a bit on expanding my Emperor's Children.

But I also had a "must do" unit this month from something completely different.

But first things first, as I went on an adventure.  And as a result, the very first models painted for new journeys into Middle Earth are these two Rohan archers.

More Middle Earth arrived with Gandalf the Grey, first hero I did for my return to the game, because who else would have given me that little nudge out of the door...

And some more Rohan Archers...

Now, about those "must do's", that where some models for the Dux campaign.  My Temple was ready this month, so I needed a Wise (wo)Man, while I also painted up some light cav in case I rolled that on the reinforcement table.  And that nicely rounds out all the possible selections I could have in the game.

But back to those Emperor's Children...  the first thing I completed this month, are these 9 "tactical" marines, who will serve as the "fill ups" of my Havoc squads in pre-heresy colours, bringing both of those units to 10 models.

For a total different army, not mine, but Noshi`s Dark Eldar I first painted up a test model of her Kabalite models.

After her approval, I started doing work on more Kabalite troops for her force.

I did a statue for use on the battlefields of the 40th millenium.

Finally, I also did these lovely pieces of terrain for Middle Earth.

This one is actually a 15mm one.

So, that brings us to a tally of 33 models painted for October.

Sylvius Brabo, Crisis 2018 give away figure

Here he is, the limited edition model the first 1800 paying visitors will find in their goodie bag at the Crisis wargame show next saturday, 3rd of november, at Waagnatie Antwerp.

With our show growing every year in both traders, clubs and visitors, we (finally?) made the figure of the legendary founder of Antwerp (at least, in folklore).

Brabo, who can be seen on the city hall square in Antwerp tossing a hand in the direction of the Scheldt river, was a 3th to 4th century roman officer.  When the giant Antigoon terrorised the waterway, he fought and defeated him.  He next cut off the giants hand and tossed it in the river, hence the name "Ant-werpen" of "hand-throwing".

Hey, it's a legend of course, but definitly a good sounding one.  

The figure has been sculpted once again by Paul Hicks, who has now done all over figures apart from the very first two (Ambiorix, by Pro Patria, and Leopold II, by the Perry's) and cast by Griffin Molds.  The figure comes dressed in late roman armour, and the famous hand lies at his feet.

A great looking model, for what will hopefully once again become a great show!

See you on saturday at Crisis 2018!

Kabalite Warriors

And yet more Kabalites join the ranks of Noshi's budding Dark Eldar army.

This week, I`ve finished 6 more of their number, including a third Splinter Cannon.

On the one hand because those guns are damn good, but also because, well, it where just 6 randomly taken from the box models, and it happened to have another one of them in the lot.

This now brings the painted pile of the basic Warrior of the Drukhari to a modest 11 finsihed, but slowly and steadily the ranks will be bolstered as I keep painting on.

I just hope I ain`t digging my EC's own grave with these guys...

A few more Rohan archers

It`s modest progress I`m making for now on the Lord of the Rings, as I`m rounding out other units first.

But progress is progress, and next week I`ll be glueing together a heap of "good side" models.

While Rohan has always been, and will be once again, my main army for the game, to boost the initial numbers some men of Minas Tirith will be added.  Because well, with their almost full plated uniforms, they are super easy to paint and will give me a nice headstart as the Allies Matrix in the rulebook has them listed as green anyways with Rohan.

But for now, the number of bowmen has been brought to 4, not really immense numbers, but a start none the less...

Kiznaiver

Part of my "10 randomly picked anime's", Kiznaiver aired in 2016.

Consisting of 12 episodes, it contained a mix of drama and romance... and not really my sort of series I`d pick normally.

Plot (from MAL)

Katsuhira Agata is a quiet and reserved teenage boy whose sense of pain has all but vanished. His friend, Chidori Takashiro, can only faintly remember the days before Katsuhira had undergone this profound change. Now, his muffled and complacent demeanor make Katsuhira a constant target for bullies, who exploit him for egregious sums of money. But their fists only just manage to make him blink, as even emotions are far from his grasp.

However, one day Katsuhira, Chidori, and four other teenagers are abducted and forced to join the Kizuna System as official "Kiznaivers." Those taking part are connected through pain: if one member is injured, the others will feel an equal amount of agony. These individuals must become the lab rats and scapegoats of an incomplete system designed with world peace in mind. With their fates literally intertwined, the Kiznaivers must expose their true selves to each other, or risk failing much more than just the Kizuna System.

What I liked about it

* the humour is sublime at times, as the classmates interact with each other, including the first signs of attraction

What I didn`t like about it

* behind those stunning and colourfull designs, there is unfortunatly a rather bland storyline, making it an average anime at best.

Okay, so not the greatest pick I made, but better then some.  It was nice to fill an evening with, but nothing more.

Altar of Slaanesh update October 2018

I managed to get two games in during october, being a 40k battle and a kill team one.

While one was a success, that means only a small one piece update to the altar this month as such.

And that victory came against the Space Marines of Tonny, the Salamanders.  In a hard fought battle, my Emperor's Children took the victory in the final turns after trailing behind most of the game, so a shoulderpad of the chapter has been claimed as a trophy now.

The coming weeks I hope to round out the Dux campaign, either by straight winning it, or by losing my Lord causing me to be knocked out.  But either one of those two is going to happen during november I fear, so I doubt I`ll be making it there into 2019...

Which is a good thing, as I can start tuning my force for the club league in 2019 then, and build it into an uber-competitive all taker army.

Like the old days... and bring home trophies for the altar!

The Haul Report 154

The week before the CRISIS wargame show, so I hadn`t planned on posting anything here this week...

But enter my lovely collegue Nina, who just came back from holidays to both New York and Iceland.  

And from the city that never sleeps, she brought this little souvenir.  An excellent rendition of the NY skyline, that just begs for a paintjob (which was here idea as well) for use in 6mm games.

I`m going for the famous green look on that one for sure, and "true" colours for the other buildings.

Thanks a lot!

Next week, this series will skip an episode due to the Crisis show, but be assured that any loot I score there will be featured in the huge report!

On the Painting Desk 67

Another week gone by, and the final one before the Crisis wargame show is upon us.

Which also means there won`t be an episode next week, as I`ll be on the wargame walhalla.

Now, this week I did manage to get some good progress done, without finishing actually to many spectacular things.  But this means more and more models are getting nearly done, and that desk will get cleared before the end of the year as a result... or so I keep telling myself xD

See you all again in two weeks for the next episode!

The Scotti Return Dux Britanniarum battle report

Even after learning the scotti a lesson a few months ago, they invaded my shorelines once again.

Their target?  A rich villa near the coast, but alas for them they have been spotted by the local watchtower and reinforcements are on the way.

Can the valiant defenders hold out until their lord arrives?

My force was 2 Levy unit down, as a result of last weeks massacre.  Of them, a Noble was located in the tower with two units of warriors and the archers... archers who would become the doom of the scotti...

The Scotti came ashore with their usual mass of skirmish units and cavalry, so the key would be to make a wall and hopefully let their forces break on it.

My noble gathered his warriors and went forward, while the archers loosened a volley.  One raider fell overboard, while his noble already had to spend his Constitution of an Ox to avoid injury.

Flanked by skirmish cavalry, the noble went out for vengeance and advanced towards my defenders, while the rest landed to make haste to the villa.

Unit after raider unit assaulted the small shieldwall, and after a Goat it's formation was broken, but it had stalled the scotti forces for a long time.  Just as the Noble led his warriors in a final desperate assault, a horn sounded.

The Romano- British had arrived, and the cavalry lined up on the hill.  In the meantime, the Lord gathered his warriors and levy around him to form a massive shieldwall and block off the flank of the woods, sending his wicca's forward to reduce shock and keep the defenders in the battle as long as they could.

Alas, they fell to the sheer overwhelming numbers of the raiders in the end, but the noble was released back afterwards as war compensations.  The massive lord led wall now stood ready to take on the raiders on this side of the forest.

But then the thundering of hooves could be heard.  After slowly moving into position, taking out first the scotti archers, and the next turn the skirmish cavalry (with the help of a Carpe Diem card), the mighty charge began.

Looking a lot like the Rohirrim on the Fields of the Pelennor, the shock cavalry crashed in the scotti cavalry, who had only just seen their allies break down the doors of the villa.  The villa had held out thanks to a mighty spirit wall in front of the door, but had cost the raiders precious time.

After inflicting a massive 20 hits (my noble rolling 16 dice on his own with his magical sword, and card combo's), one unit of cavalry fled after recieving 18 shock.  The other unit, these ones elites, containing the scotti lord, was totally wiped out and the lord and his champion barely escaped with their lives.

The game was over, as the scotti morale tumbled under 0 after this.  In the end, I took home a +3 victory, good enough to not sustain any losses and to fill the treasury again a bit.  And this brought my morale to 16, one point short of declaring myself Dux Britanniarum in the campaign and going into the grand finale.

Next time it will be an actual battle, as my former allies both have gathered against my liege, and I will stand by his side with a plan. Or to retreat swiftly if it starts to look to shabby...

Masou Gakuen HxH

Another one of my 10 random anime picks, this 12 episode series falls in the action / comedy / harem style of series

So a series about a guy who must arouse girls in order to improve their fighting powers... roooight...

Plot

Hida Kizuna possesses the HHG (Heart Hybrid Gear) ability, but it is not strong enough to make him particularly important. His older sister calls him to transfer to a strategic defense school, where many of the students (many of which are large-breasted girls) use their HHG abilities to fight invaders from another world while wearing extremely skimpy pilot outfits. Kizuna’s fighting ability doesn’t measure up, but his sister has another plan—apparently having erotic experiences with Kizuna will allow the girls to replenish their energy or power-up. It looks like his new school life is going to be full of embarrassment

What I liked about it

* Oppai, oppai, oppai!!!

What I didn`t like about it

* well, I guess the like says it actually.  It`s so full of fan service, it even goes as far as to drop a "love room" in the middle of a battle to rejuvenate the girl's magitech armours...

Okay, so this is a series for the hentai-to-be teenager it seems, you can just as well google some dirty anime pics instead of sitting through this for an hour or 4...

Knights of the Cross - Tom Harper

Another "semi-historical" novel, as that genre together with the obvious fantasy and sci-fi reads remain my favorites to spend time with during bus trips and lunch hours.

And in this one, I go back into the era of the Crusades...

Plot

1098.  The armies of the First Crusade race across Asia Minor routing the Turks and reclaiming the land for Christendom.  But on the Syrian border, their advance is halted before the impregnable walls of Antioch.

As winter draws on, they are forced to suffer a fruitless, interminable siege, gnawed by famine and tormented by the Turkish defenders, the entire crusade is on the verge of collapse.  In the midst of this misery a Norman knight is found murdered.  His lord, the ruthlessly ambitious Bohemond charges Demetrios Askiates to find the killer.  But as Demetrios investigates, the trail seems to lead ever deeper into the vipers' nest of jealously, betrayal and fanatism which lies at the heart of the crusade.

What I liked about it

* the actual crusade parts and the battles and sieges paint a nice grandour of the endeavour

What I didn`t like about it

* well, it is for my likings to much a Sherlock Holmes like book at times to be honest.

Angelic Statue

The third of the statues I have printed, and the "middle one" in size, the Angelic Statue also comes from yeggi.

Now, this is more for Burrows and Badgers though, as there aren`t any angels as we know them in the works of Tolkien.

Though it might serve just as well on the battlefields of Warhammer 40k, especially when facing Blood Angels for obvious reasons... or the Sisters.

For now, the next planned piece of scenery is the demonic altar, but first it's time to do some miniature painting.

Las Elegidas

A Mexican film from 2015 we came across scrolling through Netflix, this one hard baby to watch.

Not because of the film itself, but because it is a rock hard reality check... about forced prostitution.

Plot (from Wikipedia)

Teenagers Ulysis (Oscars Torres) and Sofia (Nancy Talamantes) are in a relationship. It is revealed that Ulysis is being groomed by his family to entrap his young lovers into the prostitution ring that forms his family's business. Having fallen for Sofia his first lover, Ulysis puts up an unsuccessful fight to prevent her from being exploited. His father agrees to let Sofia free only when Ulysis gets another young girl to replace her in the brothel. Thus he sets toward honeytrapping his extensive victim.
Meanwhile, Sofia is pushed further into the flesh trade and hardens up after seeing the chances of her escape getting slimmer as days go by. She finally finds a good samaritan who plans to get her out, but soon before that Ulysis manages to push another girl, Marta into prostitution to replace her and takes Sofia away to live with him.

Getting back to relative freedom and into Ulysis's family, Sofia finds it difficult to be happy or thankful to Ulysis, who is the root cause of her miseries and the reason why she cannot see her family. She also realises another girl has been trapped by Ulysis as her replacement and struggles with this thought. Ulysis in turn tries to please her in futility but cannot get her to revert to the happy sweetheart she was, and also feels guilty about it. The film ends with Sofia and Ulysis on a seemingly normal outing with Ulysis's family but the two youngsters glance at each other probably wondering if things will ever be normal again.

What I liked about it

* Not a gratuitious softsex movie but a hard look at a real issue in Mexico, on how very young girls are forced into working as prostitutes.

What I didn`t like about it

* the whole taxi sequence was a bit confusing, what happened that she didn`t escape?

A good movie from a not so often seen "market" of film making here in Western Europe, this was not the sit back movie we expected on a sunday afternoon.  Many swallows where made as we watched about these problems.

Not for the faint hearted...

Unboxing Space Crusade Rokitas Bikes

Produced by Prodos Games, as part of their Space Crusade range, comes this set of demonic bikers, ideal for my Slaanesh force.

So I made a short video on the unboxing of the models, and soonish they will join the ranks of the 'to paint' models as such.

Thanks for sacrificing your eardrums to listen to my croaking!

More Kabalite warriors done

After getting the approval of Noshi on her testmodel last week, it is time to start mustering her forces.

To that end, I've been painting batches of Kabalite warriors in between the "other stuff".

The benefit of a colourscheme based around black, is that I can generate a swift rhytm for them, and the first additional 4 include two splinter cannons.

Not for any particular reason, they where just the next four I came across...

Westworld season 2

When HBO released their "next Game of Thrones" last year, I devoured it, and couldn`t wait week after week for the new episode.

The fact I only today finished the second season, months after it ended, might already give you an indication on how I feel about the second one...

Plot (from Rotten Tomatoes)

Season 2 of the drama series deals with the aftermath of the massacre of the Delos board members that closed the previous season. As different timelines overlap, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) puts together an army of hosts and hunts the survivors, planning to take over the real world; meanwhile, Charlotte (Tessa Thompson) tries to understand what happened and regain control of the park. Others embark on different but related quests: Maeve (Thandie Newton) goes looking for her daughter, helped by Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) and Lee (Simon Quarterman); Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) tries to find a solution to the situation without revealing his identity; from beyond the grave, Ford (Anthony Hopkins) ropes William (Ed Harris) into a new game and sends him on a search for the Door, without revealing what it really is.

What I liked about it

* first and foremost, the music once again.  Especially the version of Paint it Black in episode 5 was drop dead fantastic
* The attention to detail in the surroundings and everything, and the return of Sir Anthony Hopkins in episode 7.

What I didn`t like about it

* Unfortunatly, a lot.  Season 1 concluded with a jawdropping twist, as it was a timehopping series all along and we where misled in believing everything happened at the same time, instead of largely in the past.  This makes it feel this season that we have seen it all before though, like how the Delores / Bernard voyage concludes.
* Episode 7 had all the potential to become the best over all seasons... and then plot armour screwed it all up.  To many last moment saved by shooting, greatly killing of the impact instead of a main character for example.

No, I ain`t to wild about the second season at all, and it feels to me a LOT weaker then the originality of the first year.  Might there be a season 3?  Perhaps, but personally I won`t be lying awake if there wasn`t...