Here come the Irish!!!

Finally it is done! One year and a month to paint up 1000 points of Warmaster Ancients Celtic Irish, and then I claim that small scales paint faster hehehe...

Well, to be honest, most went swiftly, except the last two units of chariots, that stood assembled on my paint table since the beginning of august... scandalous I know :D especcially since the first completed units already appeared in the League Painter League on LAF beginning of the year... so go figure how `speedy` I handled the project.



I don`t know if the force itself is going to be balanced, but I prefer the `rumble rabble` armies over small elite forces like the Romans and the likes.

In the end, and in all it`s glory, here are the sons of Finn McCool



Now to give Albert on our club that battle I promised him for almost 5 years, though at least my army got painted in the meantime :-DDDD

Nocturne joins the Excalibur roster

So finally got around to get my hands on a Nocturne heroclix model and get her repainted for my Excalibur team.

The hardest part is that the heroclix comes in her brown beige exiles uniform, so strategically repainting the black / red / white of her all day `clubbing` clothing that she wears in the Excalibur series did the job decently enough to represent her for the superhero games.



Talia Josephine `TJ` Wagner, your sexiest, favourite little blue skinned, body possessing mutant on the block!

Project Lame-Ass: batch 2

Aaaaaaah, Christmas eve... hours and hours of quiet, silent painting time while the family is off to visit relatives and disgorge in Bachus-esque festivities, while The Clone Wars season 2 plays on my PS3.

Merry Christmas to all!!!


Now, on painting level, this week has been fun and productive.



I finished off all the required armour of my EuroFed force, with the last 3 Tassigny IFV`s and 3 Mont Sabert MBT`s. The left overs of the second hand deal will probably find their way to some BnB one of the weeks.
In addition to those, more 6mm was completed in the form of 2 more stands of Lizard Rider infantry and 4 stands of Eldar Fire Dragons.

A littlebit special this week is a Zaku gundam from the 1/400th scale Neo series, a special set to comerate the 30th aniiversayr of the Gundam franchise. These little scale models are still large enough to be used in 6mm games as `smaller` rank and file battlesuits.



The final pieces of this week are a 15mm Barbarian tent from Baueda, still more then suitable to litter on smaller scale battlefields as large `yurts`, and then the three models that I showed earlier this week, namely the ECW try out model and two of the Crisis LE models.

For the comming set to be completed, with work going to be low this week, I aim to finally complete my 1000 pts Irish warmaster army, and add Nocturne to my Excalibur roster.

Till next time and enjoy the holidays!

New adventurers join the Società di archeologia e cimeli

Two new additions to the Società di archeologia e cimeli teams, as I painted up some limited edition models to integrate into games of WHD! in the future

Silvio `Il Foppio`

Silvio is one of the more extravagant members in a team made up of extravagant people... and that is saying something. Middle aged and flashing, he is one of those people that seem stuck in a wrong time frame state of mind. Dashing over the battlefields as a gallant renaisance lord, wielding a rustic pistol and a dirk while his satin jacket breezes in the wind.
He is brave, perhaps to brave, as he rushes towards the opponent, a trait which has caused him some serious injuries, though miraculously he did survive them all to be said, it also allows the rest of the team to get a good idea where the enemy is shooting from...



The model is the Crisis 2010 free give away model `De Bokkenrijder` (the buck rider), sculpted by Paul Hicks.


Mara

Paleskinned Mara is a simple till clerc from the SAC and not heroic in any way. One day she was working late in an exhibition in the Cairo museum, when she heard rumblings down the main hallway.
She hid in one of the side rooms, but when the noises kept getting louder and louder she had a bout of heroics and donned medieval armour and an old sword that where on exhibition there and rushed out in the corridor, not wanting to die as a cowardly scream queen.
She gave the night cleaning crew the scare of their lives right there and then!



The model is the 2009 Crisis free entry model, De Dulle Griet from the painting in 1562 by Pieter Breughel the Old. Still to be seen in Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, and sculpted by Paul Hicks

ECW Parliament `tester`

Finally started painting on my ECW 28mm forces, and trying to puzzle out a `main regiments` paint scheme

In the end, I went for Skippon`s lads, as the combination of red vests ties in with the New Model Army and green banners that contrast well with the red and buff colours



In the end, I`ve decided on one regiment of Philip Skippon, two of Saye & Sele`s and probably some New Model style forces, mainly for the more specialised troops like the firelocks

Project Lame-Ass: the first batch

So the last mail orders went out, with an army deal of Parliament 28mm ECW to Warlord, Khazari Raiders from the Exodus Wars range, fill outs for my PacFed and EuroFed forces from Brigade and a whole lot of WW2 material at Magister Militum... and as 2010 draws to a close, that will be it in buying models for a long time (unless, some second hand deals etc pop up, but that`s beside the goal).

2011... the year the majority gets painted. Or so we hope. In our imagined fantasy way..

Nevertheless, between hard working days and a major hangover that reminded me of my college days, I did finish of a first `plate` of models, albeit with them being desert scheme tanks mostly, it ain`t that much of a jiffy.

Some M13/40s and Lancia RO trucks where completed for the Italians in ww2 desert campaigns, as well as 3 Tassigny command, 3 Tassigny IFV and 2 Montsabert MBT`s for the Eurofed`s.

Then the next one was the first of 6 stands of MicroWorld lizard riders for use in Future War Commander, as one needs infantry in the game (apart from the obliged choice) to occupy objectives and such, though at 85 points a stand these are seriously expensive buggers. More alien lovin` was also painted up in the first of the Saim Hann Eldritch caste SPG`s, a really old and classic model which I like due to the big ass cannon mounted upon it.

Bolstering the Diamond Sharks, a Shadowhawk mech also got completed, painted in the livery of the Beta Galaxy. A nice mobile medium mech with as a primary goal to bump up the numbers.

Finally, two more buildings got painted up, in the everlasting effort of collecting enough scenery that can double in both scifi games as in the (early stages) planned follow up of the FWC campaign in 2012, returning to the world war 2 era and using the `sister rules` of Blitzkrieg Commander...



Not a bad start for the project, the next series will include some limited edition Crisis entry models, and the round up of the tank units for my EuroFed`s with the last needed Tassigny and Montsabert tanks. Apart from that... it`ll be what I feel like that will get painted hehehe...
Unless I can`t get myself torn away from World of Tanks. Love the game for all it`s no brainer easiness.

Project Lame-Ass: the Assault on Lead Mountain

... or better known as a one man struggle to reduce the mountain of unpainted lead during the year 2011!

It is time to ge to action, and as such I`ll be chronolicing my efforts to reduce the 1000s of miniatures scattered around `Casa Tomsche` and convert them into finished projects of painted armies.

The intention (however unlikely) is to not or rarely buy any models during 2011, except for BnB bargains, Salute and Crisis. No more tempted impulse buys, the masses need to be finished first! At current I`m around 5000 unpainted models and scenery of all sorts of scales, eras and settings, and the goal is to reduce it in 2011 to under 1500! Ambitious? Very much YES! Obtainable? He, if your reading this, your probably a wargamer yourself and you know the answer to that question ;)

BUT no harm in trying, the last mail orders for a year (my God, if I repeat this long enough, I might believe it myself) will go out this week (an Exodus Wars 6mm scifi Khazari army, a 28mm Parlementarian ECW army and 6mm GHQ odds and ends to fill out my WW2 armies)and then it all will start in earnest.

To motivate myself, I`m going to keep this series updated irregularly. Every time I painted up a batch for varnishing, I`m gonna put a post with my usual idiotic ramblings and insights, as well as projected plans and the likes here, off course with the obliged pictures. Can`t stop hurting people`s eyes now can we!

So where to go and what to do? Well, included, but not by a long short the complete list, are amongst others finishing off 6mm scifi armies for Lizard Riders, Tau, Eldar, EuroFed, PacFed, Battletech Diamond Sharks and Khazari. World War 2 wise in the small scale includes african theatre Italians, late war british, eastfront hungarians and early war frenchies. Musket era and the likes are a 28mm ECW army and 6mm Union and Confederate ACW armies.
Then there are off course the still not finished 10mm Warmaster Historical Irish, 28mm Hibernians for Shieldwall, 28mm Celtic Irish for Age of Arthur...
And we still have a heap of WFB wood elves and 40k tau to tackle. Probably somewhere in between 28mm Pulp, 28mm WW2 (which can double in Pulp), Anime Tactics and Gundams...

In other words, to quote Sam Beckett: `Oh Boy!`

Converting the little people

No, this isn`t a post about bringing leprechauns over to some obscure faith, but about filling some gaps miniature wise in Future Wars Commander.

As earlier posts have already told, our game group is running a major campaign in 6mm, and some of the armies I have lack entries left or right in the miniature ranges, and so it came down to my poor converting skills to knock something together for use in my battles.

The first up where the artillery and aircraft support for my Micro World Games lizard rider army. Reptiloid species riding dinosaurs, even though the army list is having a hard time winning games due to lack of survivability and very expensive infantry causing them to have low breakpoints, an image to great to resist.

So first up, the artillery and FAO officer. The officer was pretty simple, a normal infantry man and some scanner looking periscope device. The device was a lever from I don`t know which kind of 15mm cannon from Flames of War anymore. The artillery was a 10mm Pachysaurus I got from Magister Militum.
His back got a little bt filed down and the turret with panzerfaust missile from a german Pak36 (again, 15mm german leftovers from Flames of War) put on top of that.



Next up, an aircraft with FAC officer. Again, the officer was a simple base `work out` to show him easily on the battlefield. In this case, it was an infantry man mounted on top of a column. The column is the top of a Doctor Who Mirco-universe spinner, so now the bloke can overlook the battlefield and direct the airstrikes.
The plane itself was again a 10mm Magister dinosaur, this time the Quatzalcoatl (the dinosaur of that name, not the mythical mayan bird). He was then equipped with wingbombs, which I got from FoW Stuka divebombers, and a cockpit which was once a backpack of some himalayan gear looking chinese fella.



And the guys together with some regular `saurs to show the scale and size.



The second project to fill out was a Cronus walker to use in the EuroFed list from Brigade. For this, I used a Serpent Gundam of Marimeia`s army in Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz from the Bandai 1/300 gundam models series. These models come in at around 6 - 7cms, so he is towering enough to warrant a 700 points monstrosity.
I removed his Vernier backpack rocketboosters, as well as his typical anime `big cannon of doom` weapon. The latter was replaced by a 28mm machine gun of I have no idea where that ever came from, and to simulate the traditional `beam sabers` often used in the various Gundam series, I added a 40mm scimitar from a Mega Miniatures genie range, and painted that a bright pink. Ideal for the 12dice assault version of a Cronus walker.
Couldn`t resist though in order to show his `heritage` to christen the walker `Marimeia` ;)

XXXG-01H2 HeavyArms Kai

The second 6mm scaled Gundam completed for the running campaign, and my favorite from the Wing series: HeavyArms, in his Endless Waltz version.

Armed with two double barrelled gatling guns as main weapons, I like the darkish colourscheme more then the red / orange scheme of the original HeavyArms, and didn`t waste any time to get him painted up for use soonish on the battlefield (soonish as in, when his 4 companions are painted up as well)