Attack on Titan season 1

Okay, so it might be time I catch up with the "cool kids" and this very popular series.

The first season, compremising of 25 episodes, bundles four arcs from the original magna in a series of "linked sub-arcs" to the overal plot.

Just a word of warning first: don't get attached to any characters outside the main cast, they end up dead rather quickly, making Game of Thrones look like a fairy tail.

Humanity has been hurdled back into one giant city, ringed by three huge walls.  Assailed by all sides by gigantic monsters called Titans, Eren wants to join the Scouts as they come outside this lifestock like existence.
But Wall Maria is breached and his parents killed, so Eren vows revenge together with his childhood friends Armin and Mikasa.  He seemingly falls after completing his training, but reappears as a Titan himself, attacking the others.

Eren and his friends are subsequently recruited in the elite scout regiment of captain Levi, but when faced with a strange female Titan who apparently also possesses the ability to transform, the scout squad gets decimated. But this Titan is suspected to be one of the scouts, and when the remnants of the regiment returns home, she reveals herself and wreaks havoc in the city...

Okay, so it isn`t a bad series indeed, and both entry musics (especially the one from the first part of the season) are epical pieces.  But the one thing I didn`t like though was the style in which the Titans themselves are drawn and animated, they look so out of place.

Never the less, over time I`ll check out the remaining seasons as well...

On the Painting Desk 120

Or better, At the Assembly Line...

As my painting spot isn't set up yet and it is still a bit of helping out where possible, I have been glueing together models at full speed instead.

That way, the glueing (and undercoating) will be ready by the time the AHPC starts at the 21st of december, and so will I in a bid to score no less then 1.000 points this year.

And that will include a heap of 6mm, as both my Belgians and my Neo-Soviets for respectively Blitzkrieg and Future War Commander are build up.

Until next week!

What I painted in November 2019

We've moved!

And that also means this is a bit of an iconic month, as it features the very last figures finished in the old appartment.

Unfortunatly, the mancave isn't just set up, BUT I have been painting in the new place!  And the glorious first models completed in the Hobbit Hole (a picture and video report on the place will follow once it is all done and ready) arrrrrrrre:

6mm Haystacks from Perfect Six Miniatures, 9 of them to be precise.

Yup, nothing big or spectacular, as it is mostly journeying between hobby room in progress and the dining able for the moment. Not ideal for serious paint projects as my paint lamp isn't installed yet, but good enough for all sorts of small scatter terrain and the likes.

But before everything was packed up on the paint desk and moved to this new place, some figures had also been completed, most notably at last the batch of 18 Morannon Orcs.  These guys have officially become the last miniatures painted on the trusty paint desk...

As well as this minor level hero, a Mordor shaman.

Another small thing I completed was a few models to test the paint scheme for my Zeon forces in 6mm.

So, 31 models got rounded out for the month, but I plan on finishing the year with a bang though...

The Middle-Earth Hobby Bingo update 5

About one more month to go before the year, and this bingo effort, ends, so let's see how far we are for the final sprint.


Because well, dwarves are lethal on short distances after all...

But oops, in update 4 I actually forgot to post the image of my card, so this time it seems like a lot of fields had been scratched off...

What is actually new are the Morannon orcs, resulting in the marking of "Finish a model that has been in your to-do pile for over a year".

I realise I won't be able to finish all the squares for the Bingo by a long shot, but for december and the AHPC I am going to be aiming for some final markings first before entering other items into the challenge...

Vixen: The Movie

And that's it, number 30 and meaning I reached this years goal of movies to watch.

Unfortunatly, this "made for CW" DC movie isn't one of the stronger DC animated movies though...

Released in 2017, the film is a compilation of season 1 and 2 of the animated webseries, with new scenes linking them together into one story.  The cool part about this movie though, is that all the CW alumi like Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin voice act their characters from the various series on the channel's Arrowverse.

Mari McCabe is a young girl who comes into possession of her families totem, allowing her to summong the powers of animals into her.  Unfortunatly, she is beset by at first her sister, who wants to bring it back to Zambesi to restore the destroyed nation for the wrong reasons, and later on the warlord that destroyed it, who wants to get all the totems in his control.

During these trials, Vixen must learn on how to control the powers and help her in fighting crime in her city, aided at times by members of the Arrowverse.

But unfortunatly, the story is at times a bit incoherent due to it being seperate episodes glued together, and while it doesn't show as such at first glance, you get the feeling during the watching that something is not quite in order.

While well animated like all DC movies, I would say this is more for the Arrowverse fan then a casual superhero movie watcher though...

The Belgian Army for BKC

A small side project I had planned for Blitzkrieg Commander, to go along all my Italians, is the Belgian army.

Now, that army list only cover may 40, as we collapsed fairly quickly against the Blitzkrieg, but did you know that at the interwar period, in september 1939, Belgium was actually the 7th most armoured army in Europe?

Well, the problems lay elsewhere, but that doesn't stop me from feeling a little patriotic and start building a small 1000 points force for them anyways.  With Scotia Grendel having packs of both infantry, the T-13 and T-15 light tanks and the ecellent 47mm at gun, it won't be to hard to get the force actually build up, nor expensive.  For the "heavier" Renault tanks, their french range gives all that is needed as well, so for less then 20 GBP I was able to get the full army list I had written up.

Standing at only 1000 points, this force as such is good enough for a short game (about 2 - 3 hours tops) which can be played on a small surface and allows me to possibly even film our battles if we get round to it for YouTube!

The planned army for now (I still have left overs from the packs above for MMGs, AT guns, ;ore regular infantry, etc...) though will consists of the following:

CO and an HQ (7)
Infantry Recce Platoon

3 Infantry Platoons
81mm Mortar Support
47mm AT Gun
105mm Artillery Field Gun

3 AMC35 Tanks
3 FT-17 Tanks
3 T-13 Tank Hunters
3 T-15 Tankettes

That is also the COMPLETE armoured might the Belgian list can take in BKC4, no matter how big or small the force would be hehehe...

Now to get those painted up once the AHPC starts end of december...

I`ll keep you posted as the army progresses!

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 10: we're in!!!

Ready for a third year of painting in the Challenge, I once again gaze upon my unpainted models to decide which models I'll hopefully get done during it's course.

Taking into account that during the closing stages Little Ipsqueek will be arriving, that means I'll have to start strong, then slowly fizzle out to be honest.

I've set myself a goal of 1000 points for this edition, and while it won't be "pure" Middle Earth like last year, it will never the less be heavy on that department, but with some added flavours of various things to go along.

Like some 40k, some scenery, a heap of anime game figures... mainly stuff from the various game systems I did keep after the moving of places.  But still, most will be Tolkien though, and scenery...

The rules are once again to be found on the AHPC blog, HERE.

Some things I want to get finished during the challenge?  A couple of MESBG Battle Companies for certain to begin with, and some additional rank and file rabble for larger armies.  High on the list here are the Rohirrim (prepped for last year's!!!! challenge, and just didn't get round to them the past year), battle companies for Arnor, Lothlorien, Rangers, Easterlings and The Shire, and if time given, more rank and file Uruk-hai and Mordor orcs.

On the scenery side, I'm looking mostly to get my small plastic Renedra houses and such done, to fill the table in a more Middle-Earth style, and if my Ender should arrive before the challenge, a whole battery of printed scenery as well...

I will also need to do some serious work on getting my "The Great Wall" inspired Empire army for the 9th Age of the ground, including the necessary converions and such to make it a worthy tournament force.  So that'll mean a LOT of resin cleaning the coming days to prepare them.

I'm also aiming to get some Tau done perhaps and then especially the ones I wanted to make as a Kill team (when that game came out, go figure...), and a bunch of the still to paint Crisis figures (see The Vault tab at the top of this blog) so I can finally show them all off in their painted glory.  For the Tau in addition, and if I have the time, this will be hopefully my SEED Destiny inspired bodyguard unit of ZAFT suits next to the above mentioned unit.

Other "side projects" I'd like to tackle during this challenge are our bands for the Underworlds game system, a bunch of 6mm Gundams for both Future War Commander and Mobile Suit Skirmish and some dribs and drabs for other boardgames like Arcadia Quest... and those Amazons from 2 challenges ago really should be dusted off and painted up for Blood Bowl as we are having a league again this year at TSA... what you mean, slacking???

Now, the big change this year is that there aren't any bi-weekly bonus challenges, but instead there will be a treasure map with themed bonuses as you go.  So I'm going to aim at finishing those, and even maybe reach the famed X which marks the spot!

So that should give me a nice tally when the challenge ends of completed figures, if all goes well and my little Hobbit keeps to his schedule to emerge from his Hobbit Hole...

Haystacks 6mm scatter terrain

And here they are, the glorious, very first miniatures I painted in the new place.

Okay, so it is something simple, as the mancave isn't ready yet, so it was dining table work...

But never the less, it's some nicely sculpted, metal haystacks to litter my BKC table during games, big enough to provide some cover on the open fields.

The models themselves are by Perfect Six, and took about an hour to paint the whole set with some drybrushing over a light brown undercoat.

Hope you like the little tikes.

Review: Brigade Models 6mm Neo-Soviet Molotok SP Gun

If you like huge guns, this is your tank!

Hailing from the Neo-Soviet range and found HERE, this thing just screams indirect firing.

I will be reducing the opponents lines to crater heaven!

The Haul Report 205

Another week dribbled by, and some new shineys arrived this week.

Namely this awesome Limited Edition figure.

Captain Flint (yeah, I'm a fan) now graces my collection of figures, and I obtained number 82 / 500 from these Wargames Illustrated limited models, sculpted by Kevin Dallimore.

Because we`re all monsters to someone...

On the Painting Desk 119

Okay, so this is faster then expected!

The move went well, and while still not optimised for dedicated painting, I did manage to get actual work done while the kitchen was delivered and installation was in progress.

Okay, painting is saying much, mostly assembling figures though as I still need to get a table for painting, so it was moving to the dining room for now.  But once the mancave if fully set up, expect the return to video format to show weekly progress.

The good thing though is that I now can assemble and prime already a lot of figures for when / if the AHPC returns this year, skipping that time consuming preparation work already.

So, off we go in a new chapter of hobbying as we build up forces for the weeks to come...

Review: Perfect Six 6mm Haystacks

With my CSIR preparing to invade Russia, I went on the look out for some suitable scatter terrain.

And that search brought me to the Perfect Six Miniatures range, who make some great models for cheap prices.

For 2.25 GBP, I obtained 9 haystacks, 3 each in 3 different sizes.


Order them HERE if you want some for yourselves!

Justice League Dark

A memorable animated movie this is, as it is the first one I watched in the new house while unpacking the hobby room.

In this 2017 movie from the DC brand, whom long time have been better then their theatre counterparts, we get to meet "another" Justice League.

All over the States, violent murders are committed by people halucinating that they see demonic entities all round.  The League thinks it is magic at the source, but Batman is skeptical.  However, he is briefly possessed by Deadman who tells him to find Constantine.

Looking up Zatanna, they search out Constantine, and together with Black Orchid and Deadman they look up Ritchie Simpson, a friend of Constantine and Zatanna whose days are limited due to cancer.  Their search leads to Jason Blood and he tells them about the sorcerer Destiny, planning to make a return after centuries into this world, and grouping up with Swamp Thing the hunt is on...

It is a great movie, showing "that other" Justice League in action at last, based on their comic book adventures.  The working ethos of these more sinister members is slightly different then their goodie-two-shoes counterparts, and they are way colder in their resolve of situations (especially John Constantine).

Really worth the watch!

A-X-L

Where The Croods was the final movie we watched in our place in Antwerp, this american sci-fi film closed the era of Merksem binging.

Because after writing this, my trusty computer was packed up and made ready for the move of places.

A-X-L (Attack, eXploration and Logistics) is a robotic dog made by cutting edge military technology.  After escaping by an experiment gone wrong, he is discovered by Miles in an abandoned scrapyard.  Miles himself is a kid wanting to become a motorracer, and is left in the wilds after being set up by his biggest rival.

A-X-L helps rebuilding Miles's lacking confidence, while he in turn, together with a girl named Sara, go to length to protect their new robotic friend, realising what is at stake should he be discovered.  But when his rival tries to burn A-X-L with his flamethrower, the dog goes after him after a self-repair cycle to get revenge.  Miles and Sara can stop him, but this results in their friend being recaptured by the scientist that created him.  He threatens to kill Sara if Miles doesn't hand over the control key, but A-X-L remembers his friends and together they escape, pursued by the military, and having the puppy bring the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect Miles...

It's a movie we originally intended to watch in theatre, but never got round to, and sort of glad we did.  While it isn't bad for a "late night in the couch", I would have felt bad should we have payed the 17 euro each for a movie ticket.

But if you have an hour or two to spare, it's okay to spend those at watching A-X-L...

SBG issue 7 - Summer 2018

Slowly and surely I`m catching up enjoying all these lovely produced fanzines, and this time we are at the summer of 2018, nearing the end of the previous edition of the game.

And it is all centered about a year in the making, awesome piece of terrain, the Stone Giants from the The Hobbit movie.

The issue starts with the snippets from the SBG Towers, including some facts about the above mentioned piece of very impressive terrain.

The first big article is the continuation of How to Win a Golden Demon, and Dave's diorama of charging elves and dwarves.

In the Dr's Corner, Damian looks back at his first attempts of designing a game, called Warfleet, which was a 28mm scale game of naval warfare for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, including scratchbuild vessels.

While in the Dr's Mother, a new column, his mom looks back on how she has seen her son being formed into a wargaming lover.

The second part of the Iron Hill's Tactica this month takes a look at the war machines Dain brings along with his forces, the Ballista's and the mighty Chariot.

In the first of two Battle reports this month, Thorin's Company tries to escape the ambush of Goblin Town as the Stone Giants battle it out amongst each other in a huge thunderstorm.

An article detailing the build and converting of the Champions of Erebor chariot is next in this issue.

In Painting Masterclass Bilbo is given the treatment, while there is also a short converting guide about making Gundabad Warg Riders.

In the second Battle Report, the chariot that was seen above is put through her paces, as it tries to race to Raven Hill while the forces of Gundabad ambush it at every stretch.

And we round out the issue with the Hobby Blog, to see what the whole studio crew has been up to the past weeks and months.

Another finely produced issue of the Middle Earth fanzine to be, and be sure to check the magazine out and order your backcopies if you would like to know more!

Warhammer is returning

I had predicted it to my clubmates at the build up of Hammer and Swords end of september: GW is going to bring back square based, ranked up regiments to fantasy.

I also had zilch insider info, it was more a jokingly statement due to the amount of success T9A has...

But sometimes wild predictions come true, and yesterday Warhammer Community... announced Warhammer!

Surely it will be a long term project, probably taking about 2-3 years to come to fruition (still swifter then plastic Sisters ever where) but my beloved first wargame is going to return.

Now, this does give me an X amount of years to restore both my Chaos Dwarves and paint up the Japanese inspired Empire army on the one hand, instead of X amount of months.  Okay, I'll still do a force to be able to play tournaments with in T9A in the meantime, but let's say I am "rather excited" with the news.

Glorious ranks upon ranks of warriors marching over the battlefield with a ruleset I know pretty well since 1994, that is bound to bring back very very fun times!

Now the countdown begins...

The Haul Report 204

Well, Crisis has passed again, and the loot of the convention could be seen in a seperate post from earlier this week HERE.

So it's back to regular business now, and let's have a look at what the mailman dropped by in the week going to and coming after our annual wargames show.

And the first one was, ow yes, cellphone covers... it's addictive m'kay...

But also on the 6mm front some parcels arrived.

From Perfect Six Miniatures, an assortment of scatter terrain came in, together with lifestock and farmers.

While from Heroics and Ros my italians to build a small CSIR force with arrived as well.

I bet Nemesis's planned Russians are already scared to hell!

More world war 2 arrived from Scotia, as my 1000 points Belgian force fell in the mailbox.

As did some Khurasan Colonial Marines and their APC's.

More small scale goodies came in the form of 1/400 Gundams, whom I'll be using for Mobile Suit Skirmish in the future.

Brigade Models also delivered this week, as their Neo-Soviets, to be used alongside the Gundams as Zeon tanks.

And of course, all that shiny stuff needs to be based...

Good times indeed...

The Croods

This is a bit of a special moment movie, as we watched it the saturday evening after Crisis.  lying only on a matrass in an empty living room, on the small screen of a computer streaming Netflix.

Because the whole appartment in Antwerp has been packed up that weekend, ready for the move...

Due to the overprotectiveness of their father, a cavemen family survives a natural disaster and wild predators.  But when the daughter, Eep, sneaks out at night, she makes contact with a human, Guy, who tells her the world is going to end unless they ride the sun.

Following an earthuake, they discover a hidden jungle and new creatures, but soon the natural disasters start to catch up and they have to go to new lands again.  Guy guides them to a mountaintop but as a chism is froming, Grug must make a big sacrifice and does so, overcoming his nature and his phylosophy of being always afraid keeps you alive.

It was a fun little animation movie (especially the sloth is hilarious, tadadadaaaa) and the voices of Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds add some etra pigment to it.

Recommended for a lazy evening... even in the middle of a move ;-)

Turning towards "the God scale"

With the moving of places completed, and me slowly getting round to unpacking everything and loading up the new cabinet with figures, it might be time to make some big changes.

Well, big is perhaps a bad wording for what is essentially a serious downscale in the hobby... literally.

With me and Nemesis jumping into BKC4 recently (our forces are being constructed, or at least doing their journey in the mail), I have been reading up on the scale a lot.  Also for painting articles and YouTube being a good friend for this once again...

Now, I understand more then ever the benefit of what is referred to as the "God scale".  Not so named in yet another discussion what is the best scale to game in, but in the fact you overlook a battlefield with huge armies from a God's point of view.  Storage benefits (as seen on the picture how another blogger did it), transport ease... I can see the great plusses for someone with limited ability on both accounts.

To that end, bar FWC and BKC4, Im going to be dabbling into this scale a lot more, and might even drag Nemesis into it with me (or collect both sides of a conflict and have Noshi have a go) as I can store literally an army now on the space of a single regiment of 28mm (which I measured!), so suddenly all that musket era warfare seems feasible again.

A second benefit is a bit twofold: an army is dead cheap, and it doesn't take years to complete in painting, so even if I grab a new force every two months, that would still cost me only the price of two units of regular scale miniatures, but will paint up faster  The scale lends itself mostly to basecolour + wash for painting, preferably over a brown undercoat, as to much detail is lost on those small models anyways.

A third great thing I read about for the scale, is that if you just grab any set of 28mm rules, and change the inches into centimetres, the games are highly playable in this scale.  This also makes that a 6x4 table, or 72x48 inches, suddenly beco,es a 72x48 centimeter surface and fits a dinner table perfectly.

So yes, I am on the verge of converting to the scale, and my "wet dream is one day to run a game at an event using GW's War of the Ring rules, but in scale 6mm...