June in Review

I can't believe June is already over. That means the year is half over too. I'll have a post about that, since goals and planning are as much a part of the hobby for me as anything else.

But I digress, how went June? 

Figure Painting: 

• Got a paint organizer for Father’s Day: 

  

  Absolute game changer. I no longer have to rummage around through a bin of paint bottles. The only paints not in the rack are my craft paints.

   
• Painted three Battle Sisters: 

  

  HMG, Fusion Rifle, and Standard.

  
  
• Painted Frog Mage:

  

  I based the color scheme for the mage on the Painted Dart Frog.

  

  In part due to the sand-colored base, and in part due to the starfish, I think has a real Shore/Florida knickknack shop vibe,

  
  
• Assembled and began painting two GW Space Marine Infernus (as Blood Ravens), four Wargames Atlantic  lizard warriors as tribal warriors, four Wargames Atlantic lizards using the gasmask heads and AK-ish rifles (to field as OPR Saurian Starhost) kitted out with additional gear from the Wargames Atlantic German and French WW1 sprues, and two GW Sisters Repentia:

  

  The rangers were started last month. Just very undecided about what the various bits are and what colors to paint.

  

  Close up of Saurian Starhost before priming. The officer's gun is from a WW1 German. It's a clunky hand swap - their arms aren't the same width, but close enough! Also, he has binoculars, but he clearly can't use them - so I just made up a story about how they are a trophy.

  
  
• Although it's not painting, I discovered that displaying some of my 54mm figures in little groupings around my apartment brings me joy:

  

  Seriously, I could look at that shelf for hours.

 Gaming:

• Wrote up a house rule set for element-based fantasy games - it's a Morschauser Shock meets HoTT mashup, for playing One Hour Wargame scenarios, without having to track hits at all. 
• Played a bunch of my fantasy modified Morschauser and the above mash up rules. Must have been a good 7 or 8 games. (no pictures, sorry)
• Joined a Discord group for One Page Rules and found my way to a group specific to my area. They play weekly on a night I can't do, but I've been able to instigate two Saturday afternoon meetups.
• I've played five games of Grim Dark Future:Firefight against another human as a result of those meetups(we got in three games the first time, two the second). My win-loss ratio points to an issue with command (one win, three losses, one draw) but it's a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again. 

• 

  Table from the 2nd meetup. My opponent supplied the terrain. In this game, it's my Plague Disciples vs ...

  

  ORKVADER!!! Also the Orkeror and Stormtrooper Orcs (he printed them, but you can buy them from people on Etsy if, like me, you don't have a 3D printer).

  
  
• Played two solo Grimdark Future: Firefight games to prepare for the above and refresh my understanding of some of the special rules:
•  

  

  I plan to make additional multi-level ruins, some walkways to connect them, and finally paint those craters! Bare wood works well enough as sand at home, but I will need a larger cloth/mat if I'm going to supply terrain for meetups. 4x4 is the standard for Firefight, and my sand colored felt is 3x3.

  

  Sisters special weapons advance using cover.

  

  Alien Hive shooter grunts do the same.

  

  Ambush! Alien Hive swarm appears behind the caster and make a nuisance of themselves.

  

  End game. Right after this, the Sisters took out the grunt that would have contested the final objective, giving the Sisters a win.

Terrain:

• Made a 2nd two-floor ruin, some additional walls and such.
• Painted most of my Mantic Industrial Scatter Terrain

  

  I just really like how rusty these luck.

  
  

  

  These too!

  
  

  

  Not much to say about this. It took less than 5 minutes: Burnt Umber (ground) and Gunmetal (wall), then dry brushed Desert Sand (ground) and Autumn Leaves for the rust.

RPG:

• Session 2 of my Episodic Basic Fantasy RPG campaign - The Purple Worm Graveyard. The party survived and made it out with four loads of the fabeled ivory. Story-wise, they are going back to town and next session - probably early August due to vacations - will be some admin (leveling up and shopping) and a short 5-Room Dungeon model adventure and then they'll pick the next module/adventure they want to try.

Weeding:

• Weeded out a lot of old brushes, paints, and other hobby related supplies, that were duplicates,no longer useful (dried paint for example), or had not been touched in years, if ever.
• Weeded out some hex and counter games.
• Weeded out some history books.
• Weeded out a bunch of terrain that was damaged, no longer suited to my needs,etc.
• Weeded out a bunch of painted and bare plastic 54mm figures and 1/72 figures.

 Acquisitions:

• 40K 10th ed. Starter Box - I got it for a delightfully reasonable price (I did a quick search and found I got it lower than anyone advertises, even Amazon) with the Make an Offer feature on eBay. I'll be able to fill my Alien Hive and Battle Brothers forces out to about 1800 points each. An APC for the Battle Brothers and a unit of Warriors for the Alien Hive and they'll both be at 2000 points for full games of Grim Dark Future.
• 3D print Repentia type - For my Blessed Sisters, she will serve as a High Sister armed with a two-handed chain sword - and as she's not GW, she'll be easy to ID.  I like the idea that the Fanatic leader would be at the tip of the spear, swinging her sword and cutting down heretics, not behind the fighters like some kind of NKVD officer, using whips to drive them forward. Of course, I have a Repentia Superior model already and when I buy a box of Repentia, I'll have a second one. They'll see use in Firefight, but probably not in the full army. 
• Some fancy paints (Citadel, Army Painter) and a small Army Painter dry brush. The paints were to replenish my dwindling paints needed for the above 10th ed. box, but primarily they were purchased to support the shop where I played GD:FF. Small price to pay for their hospitality (tables are free to use for gaming, purchasing something is just courteous).

Phew!

I'll be traveling most of July, so I expect that, with the exception of finishing the figures already in progress and possibly sitting in on a friend's D&D game, gaming activity will be substantially less!