First Game of the New Year

Friday night, with my vacation winding down and Monday looming in the distance, I figured I really ought to get a game in on this break.

One Hour Wargames "Dark Ages" and scenario 14: Static Defense won the toss, with the lizards winning the roll to be the attacker. 

The lizards had three units of warband, one unit of archers (based on Ancient archers), and two cavalry (Pteranodons) units. The orcs were on defense and put the shield wall (Black Orcs) in the village, supported by a warband of Savage Orcs. Savage Orcs also held the the hill. The three cavalry units (Boar Boyz, who get +2 in melee) would cover the ground in front of the hill.

The Lizards advance a token force on the right and send the mass of warriors for the hill.

Overhead view

Pteranodons charge the Savage Orc warband while a Gecko warband positioned itself to prevent the Black Orcs from flanking the Pteranodons.

On the left, Boar Orcs charged the lizard archers and delivered a thunderous charge and forced them to engage in melee.

Cavalry clash! (not pictured, the lizard attack on the village did not go well)

Red-Tailed Skinks made their way to to the hill to challenge the Savage Orcs holding it, eventually driving them off.

The celebration was short lived - the last unit of Boar Boyz charged the Skinks,(on their half of turn 15) broke their lines and left the orcs in possession of the hill and the village at the end of game.

Happy New Year to All! (a year-end / upcoming year post will no doubt follow)

March Recap

This will be a photo heavy post as there was some painting in March - not so much gaming though.

What gaming there was featured five Sisters of Battle trying to escape a hoard of 21 Tyranids by reaching an extract point. I played two games of the same scenario - once with Grimdark Future:Firefight - which I'm not fond of as a solo game anymore - and once with some improvised rules that were equally unsatisfactory. I think One Hour Skirmish Wargames is going to be the way to go, or something very much RPG-lite.

 Painting-wise, I made some progress on my Alps 1940 forces:

French MG base, two infantry bases, and a leader.

The Italians received reinforcements making one full platoon and one 3/4 (using Crossfire organization):

I'm trying to code the units by basing material. Not an original idea by any means, but very useful.

Work began on the fourth army for my fantasy ... campaign? ... I don't know, I have ideas.

The microphone in the back tells you about what I've been spending most of my time on.

They are WiP. I have a lot of gear remaining to paint - I am hopeful the headgear will really make the figures pop as I don't want to shade them (going for toy soldier look). As they are, the white just washes out the details.

 In my last post, I mentioned painting some lizards (but no picture) and then I painted a few more. Here are the ones done last month:

The archer is intended to function as a Chameleon Hero in Age of Fantasy, while the spears will make up a unit of Saurian Guards (when combined with some command figures)

 Next up, some heavies - a unit of gator warriors:

I don't know who made them - they kind of remind me of Age of Aegyptus figures but not anything currently available.

My favorite of the bunch:

He is an old Grenadier model from the early 80s I believe. His color scheme is based on the yellow-headed gecko (they tend towards orange in spite of the name). He will be a Gecko Hero for Age of Fantasy.

And, just for giggles, the current painted 28mm lizard folk army:

Obviously that excludes the dinosaurs I have, as well as the yet to be painted frog mage and gator hero. Plus I have a fair number of Wargames Atlantic figures to assemble and paint to add to my red-tailed skinks.

I just get a kick out of looking at them. 

Will they ever be used as a full force for Age of Fantasy? I have no idea. I'd have to be able to find people that play it locally (I know they exist but I am no longer on FB which is where they are). I do have an idea for games of small skirmishes between the various tribes that will get them on the table regardless.

I am fairly certain that if I had to abandon all of my stuff to relocate, I'd find a way to pack my lizard folk figures in  28mm and 54mm! 

Until next month!

Sister Act IV: There is Only War

 The first three Adepta Sororitas battle sisters are complete!

Looks like I missed a spot with the matte varnish on back left figure. I'm also going to redo the decals so they are all on the same corner of the cape.

I'm not 100% satisfied with my brushwork - but I am rather pleased with the way their capes came out: 

Close-up photos are the bane of a sloppy painters existence, and I can see lots of things that need attention, and I may go back and fix those things, but for now they are tabletop ready (once I fix the decals).

Although I've managed to stat out a 200 point Grimdark Future : Firefight force with these three figures, by applying various upgrades, and will get them on the table sooner rather than later, I will be starting on three more figures (two battle sisters and one canoness) shortly, in order to field a full 300 point force.

Ten battle sisters (a full squad) works as an Ecclessiarchy team in Kill Team, although I don't have the rules for that, and there is a weekly Kill Team meetup at the FLGS which is something I might consider in the coming year.     

Season Kickoff

Saturday afternoon, the 2024 Blitz Bowl season kicked off with the Skavenblight Scramblers vs Nurgle's Rotters.

Skavenblight's fast moving, big-play offense saw little opportunity, as the plodding, hard hitting Rotters gained possession early and opted for a conservative ball-control offense. 

Skavenblight Blitzer takes on Nurgle Bloater

Nurgle's team maintained near continuous possession for the duration of the game, recovering fumbles with success and beating up the Skavenblight defense at nearly every opportunity.

Patience was the order of the day for the Rotters. Moving more laterally than forward and choosing hand-offs over risky passing, they oozed steadily towards the goal-line.

Nurgle Lineman carries the ball into the End Zone

Despite being held to a single touchdown (their first ever under my coaching), the Rotters handily scored a Sudden Death victory, 13 to 2, thanks in large part to their successful completion of multiple challenge cards.

Skavenblight's blitzer suffered multiple injuries on the day but is expected to be ready to go again in time for the team's next outing, according to their coach.

That match-up will pit the Scramblers vs the Reikland Reavers.

Novokh Dynasty Necrons

 The first batch of Necrons is done! The color scheme is Novokh Dynasty - whatever that means. To me it means I can use the same reds as my Blood Ravens and get more use out of those expensive paints.

I had trouble getting an in-focus picture where the scarabs were equally in view. I blame the fact that I really need to get new glasses. I can't remember how long it's been.

Speaking of focus, I've been more focused on my guitar teaching in an effort to ramp up operations so to speak, so painting, and gaming generally, has moved into a more casual, less obsessed?, mode. It has had the odd effect of making painting a relaxing activity rather than something I'm doing solely to get a game on the table.

Between playing games while not taking pictures and painting to relax, it all feels very "retro"!

 

I Feel Like I've Been Here Before

I was planning to work on Necrons this weekend - and I did, a little. But ...

For my birthday this year, I received a sprue each of Wargames Atlantic's WWI French and Germans, so that I could move my Weird World War I project down in scale. 

I know I know. 

In part, this was motivated by the fact that I keep breaking the bayonets on the 1/35 figures, as well as the fact that making the terrain I want for the game will just be too large to store in our apartment. More importantly, of late I have found I really enjoy painting the smaller (for me) figures, for reasons I don't quite understand.

This looks familiar.

 

The figures go together easily enough, although I had trouble pairing arms. There aren't many arms with empty hands that aren't made for cradling a rifle stock, which made picking the unarmed hands for the center and left figure more annoying than it needed to be, and I think they look a little awkward.

It still beats assembling the Necrons! 

Painting was simple - blocked in the colors and then a wash of Agrax Earth Shade. They look pretty grim dark past? I don't know - but I think it works. 

I still have 4 more French and 6 Germans (I'm not sure why the Germans have one less figure per sprue).

The walls of the trench are made with Dollar Tree knock-off Jenga bricks. Three bricks are glued long edge to long edge, then covered in strips of cereal box. Then two sets of three are glued end-to-end to make a single 3.75" wall piece. A cut down bamboo skewer acts as a post and hides the the seam down the middle. I think the next batch, I'll make the full wall piece, then cover in the strips - less cutting overall that way.

The walls were also given a touch of extra height from a Dollar Tree craft stick.

The craft sticks have a slight warp but they work well enough.

 The skewer ends just before the craft stick, so i can slide the floor under the posts, making it look integrated-ish (if you look at the picture below you can see what I mean)

This approach is far more portable and configurable - like dungeon walls for an RPG (which is kind of how I imagine this WWWI project) - than my 1/35 attempt.

Top-down illustrating what it will look like with walls on each side

My plan is to coat the non-trench side with wall filler to make raw stone tunnels.

I was aware of the tunnels used by troops on the Southern Front (through rock and glacier - like when the Austrian stormtroops burst from tunnels in the ice to surprise Italian troops and also to blow the tops off mountains) and I was aware about mining on the Western Front, thanks to two of my favorite WWI movies, Beneath Hill 60 and The War Below.

I had been thinking my Weird World War I conceit would be squads moving through strangely abandoned trenches and, possibly into those same tunnels (where else would Eldritch horrors and demons enter from?).

Hence the desire to look stone-like on one side.

While doing some research - loosely speaking - I came across an offhand mention of the underground fighting during WWI. 

Fighting IN the tunnels? That would further justify my choice (I don't need it - it's pretty much WWI fantasy but it means they can serve double-duty).

To fill in the gaping holes in my knowledge, I picked up Beneath the Killing Fields: Exploring the Subterranean Landscapes of the Western Front.

I'm not finished reading it, but it is an absolutely fascinating and eye-opening read about the extent to which the Great War took place underground, be it shelter, moving men to the front, or mining operations. 

The author goes through great lengths to discuss the sensory reconfiguration required for those working in the tunnels, and, in a bit of poetic flourish, he more than once emphasizes the inversion of life and death, where the dead lay in the open air of the battlefield, and the living are underground. 

He also describes it as Hell moving from the depths of the earth to above ground, while men hide beneath the surface. If that isn't an entire Weird World War I setting in a single sentence, I don't know what is.

Now, I picked this book up for a song. It's a hardcover book and was only $3.84 usd,(regular price is around $30 usd) which may be coloring my enthusiasm a little, but I highly recommend it, especially if you can find a used copy.

Miscellaneous Mid-Week Meanderings

Life has taken a turn for the busy - between the day job, side hustle, and the band, and oh yeah, dad-life, just not a lot of time to hobby. Writing for the blog has taken the back seat to everything else.

I've played a couple of One Hour Wargames "Machine Age" (with my mods) games.  Last night I played the "Shambolic Command" scenario and discovered my variable movement rules need some adjustment for cavalry falling back after a charge. 

I am also inclined to give assault troops and any unit in cover, some kind of bonus when checking morale. It just feels like sometimes the morale failures really up (literally - lots of little dice on the table!) 

One of these days I'm going to label the bases and use an old school roster sheet to track damage.

On the painting front, I've made some progress on the Necrons. I'm painting them in the Novokh dynasty color-scheme (per my son's request). I have no preference and the fact that it uses the same reds that I used for the Blood Ravens is a plus.

The scarabs, foreground, are my favorite.

I was skeptical of the value of the "Necron Compound" dry-brush paint, but I like the end result: a very metal looking skeletal frame.

These are still a WiP bunch - this is just one or two coats of Army Painter Dragon Red. It's somewhat translucent and, over the Lead Belcher/Nuln Oil wash, it has created some highlighting effects already. 

I'll be doing a proper highlight after the next coat and some Caribou Crimson wash - I hope to have this batch done by the end of the week. However, I expect the weapons will be a bit of a challenge to get the look I am aiming for, so we'll see!

Blood Raven Intercessors Done!

Coming from the polar opposite end of the frustration axis of the Necrons, at least in terms of construction, the Blood Raven Assault Intercessors are finished!

Below one of the grunts shows off the Chapter Symbol:

The Blood Raven heraldry is not available from Games Workshop, but there are plenty of enterprising people no Etsy who are more than happy to fulfill your need for decals.

I really like the poses on these figures and am too tempted to pick up some sprues or even a complete box to extend the force. BUT the goal was a single squad - with additional support from some Ultramarine Infernus my son received afew months ago for his birthday (and which, apparently, I'm now going to end up painting as his interest isn't even quite enough to be called minimal) - and so I'll stick with that. 

For now!

Necron Nightmare

 How it started:

Necron pieces - removed from sprue by previous owner. Do not do this!

How it's going:

I do like the assembled figures though.

If I ever meet the individual who thought cutting the bits off the sprue all at once was a good idea, I'm going to give them a right proper thrashing. It's no wonder they gave up and sold the game (Fire Team) to Noble Knight.

It should have been maybe a 20 minute job to assemble them. Instead, it took hours of my Saturday, with breaks to maintain sanity.

These figures are push-fit and each one is designed to go together in a particular way. However, once free of the sprue, there's no way to tell which piece is which part number. Even better there were EXTRA bits to throw me off!

Trial and error - aided by a magnifier and looking for key details between the piece in hand and the assembly instructions ("Oh this arm has a little thingy that sticks out" or "Oh this blade has a thick bar compared to the others" or "The head in the picture has a line above the right eye and this tiny little bit of plastic does not") saved the day.

Unfortunately, in the process of trying different arms on different torsos, I ended up breaking a few of the arms (they are rather thin near the shoulder joint and near the wrist) - so I'm down three Necrons as a result. Also the heads are tiny and apparently designed to bounce a great distance upon contact with a remotely hard surface. I spent quite a bit of time on hands and knees combing the floor for the little buggers - I did manage to retrieve them all, although there were far more heads than torsos.

I will try to repair the broken arms with Super Glue,but the contact points are quite small - and even then, I don't know which body they go with, so there's only a 1 in 3 chance I get it right on the first try. And if I get it wrong, with repeated handling there's a good chance I'll break the arm again.

Replacements have already been purchased on eBay!

Plague Marines Finished!

Well, "finished" as in the seven I have.

I admit, if I were going to play Grimdark Future (as opposed to Firefight) or play 40K (not happening), I'd build up a full Death Guard force. The aesthetic is great, and best of all, they are easy to paint. 

As it is, I feel like this group could use a few more heavy weapons. Maybe support from a unit of Plaguewalkers ...

But I'll stop here for now!

The fellow in the front row, far right, was the final figure to be painted.

I used Tesseract Glow on the bases (the green bits). I was hoping for something like toxic waste  seeping up through, or spilled on, the ground. 

Not quite the end result I imagined but it's good enough to call done.

Also finished, but not pictured, was Reaper Bones orc that I started late 2023.

The last two of the five Blood Raven intercessors are on the paint table - the red base coat and highlight is done. My goal is to start assembling the Necrons this weekend.

In the Emperor's Name, Let None Survive

From 1917, we jump ahead 39,000 years ...

While I had wanted to paint the Space Marines in the blue of the Ultramarines (the different "chapters" have different names and color schemes), my son really wanted Blood Ravens. And, in the ongoing quest to entice him into playing games with me, Blood Ravens it is!

Blood Raven Intercessors. Chapter symbol decals have been ordered but are shipping from overseas. 

They won't win any awards, but they are easily good enough for the tabletop. They also continue my exploration of this method of painting - base, wash, base again, highlight - which is light years away from my usual, Deetail-inspired toy soldier painting. I really enjoy the results - although sometimes, mid-way through, after the wash is applied, I wonder how I will ever salvage the figures.

Also, this red was a bear to paint. 

Last weekend, I made a trek to the game store for paints, but they were out of Mephiston Red which I had wanted to use (based on a video I saw). Some quick searching on the web and I found that Army Painter Dragon Red was supposed to be a close match. They had it in stock, so I bought it.

It might be a good match, I don't know. I just know it took what seemed like 100s of coats to get an even finish.

Perhaps it was the white primer? I could have bought Mephiston Red primer but it's spray, and it's been so cold, that wouldn't be an option anyway.

Also, last weekend, I finished the second group of three Plague Marines:

These were painted with the drybrush-wash method.

After my lizard folk in various sizes, these are my favorite figures by far. I love their aesthetic, even if half of the time, I'm not even sure what different bits are supposed to be.

Obviously, basing still has to be completed. for both Blood Ravens and Plague Marines. Although I think I have a plan now, I have one more Plague Marine and two more Intercessors to paint before I will tackle that project. 

First Figures of 2024 (sort of)

I started in on my goal of painting everything I got for Christmas with the Plague Marines.

They came assembled and primed and I had all the colors I needed already, so they were the obvious place to start.

I used the dry brush + Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade final wash method that I used with my Nurgle Rotters and that I learned from Commander Cheapskate on YouTube.

The majority of the paints used here were craft brands. 

The bright green is provided by my new favorite paint color, Lime Sherbet (from Apple Barrel) which I used for the Rotters previously. It was dry brushed over a Russian Uniform Green base (Vallejo) which more or less disappeared between the dry brushing and the wash, but it's there. 

That's as much a note for my future self as anything - I have four more to paint.

I tried a rust effect - orange paint over gun metal on the chain mail, vents on the legs, and other bits - visible on the leftmost figure. I like how it looks.

I'm pretty happy with the overall result. I think they qualify as "Battle Ready" (that's like a GW term or something). They obviously need their bases finished but I haven't decided how I'm going to do the bases for this project.

I can't decide if I want each team's basing to be unique, or if they will all be uniform - like I do for my other collections, other than Blitz Bowl.

I need to think on that, so the paint queue will keep moving on.

Completed: Nurgle's Rotters!

Over the weekend, I finished my Nurgle bloaters and pestigor, thus completing my Nurgle's Rotters team for Blitz Bowl. 

This time I was extra heavy on the dry brushing and very little additional highlighting was needed post-Strong Tone.

They still look dirty/grime-y as opposed to shadowy, but it fits their theme.

I'm rather pleased with the bruising.

And here is the complete team:

With only 6 figures, Blitz Bowl teams are a nice bite-sized project to take on. It's satisfying knowing the team is DONE. There are no more figures to add, no options to paint up (although I still have six on the sprue if I want to make a complete Blood Bowl team, but I don't. Yet.)

Nurgle's Rotters Linemen

Earlier in the year I picked up a box of Nurgle's Rotters for Blitz Bowl - the box was damaged, so the price was well below retail and I couldn't pass it up. The figures inside were fine.

I made a mental commitment to get all of my Blitz Bowl teams assembled and painted this year (the two from the boxed game, and the Rotters). 

With time left in 2023 running out, the Nurgle linemen are ready to take the field

Their skin looks a little dirty as opposed to highlights/shadows but I am not going to correct it at this point. I tried a technique that was new to me (found on youtube) and it was a learning experience. Frankly, they look comparable to the ones I painted "the Citadel way" previously, with about 2/3rds the effort.

The technique, such as it is, involves using fairly bright colors for your base coats,then heavily dry brushing with an even brighter version of the color, before washing with a dark wash. The idea is that the wash will bring the bright colors down to a shade in the recesses, a middle tone in the middle areas, and the super bright highlights will wash down to a normal highlight color.

Indeed, it does work.

However, in many spots I did not dry brush heavily enough (that's the lesson learned), and so many of my highlights ended up too muted. I did touch the figures up and spot washed those areas i felt needed a highlight, but I'm not gong to redo the flesh to be less grimy looking. They're Nurgle's Rotters after all (even if you don't know who Nurgle is, Rotter tells you all you need to know).

I have three more Rotters to paint (two Bloaters and a Pestigor) and I'll probably use the same technique just for a consistent look for the team.

The bright green pools on the bases are supposed to be slime/nuclear waste-type stuff. It's just PVA mixed with some Moot Green (Citadel) and Lime Sherbert (Apple Barrel). It was then gloss varnished to give it a wet look. It looks a little more like spilled paint than I'd like but my son thought it was really cool, so that's good enough for me!

More Fantasy Figures from the Pile of Plastic

I have been enjoying painting of late and so I continue digging into the pile of Reaper minis I have and painting whatever looks interesting. There's no particular plan for the figures - they were acquired (and used for years unpainted) for role-playing games and they still serve that purpose. However, they can easily form into Age of Fantasy warbands or maybe even Song of Blades and Heroes (which I haven't played in a long time).

The paint jobs aren't spectacular, but they represent a growth in my painting techniques. And you can see, now that I have a formula for black highlighting I intend to use it everywhere! 

Give a man a hammer and the world becomes a nail!

I used to spend a lot of time going to goth clubs. She looks like someone I used to see out at the club and so I painted her that way. I wanted to do something more cyber-gothy with her hair, but I don't have any neon paints.

"Gotta keep movin, gotta keep movin', hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail"

Waaaggghhh!

The G.O.A.T.

Harryhausen-esque Number 2 .Metal not plastic like the above. Ral Partha not Reaper. I believe the date on the base was 1991 or 1993. I forget and it's glued down now.

The shading (either Army Painter Strong Tone, Citadel's Agrax Earth Shade, or Citadel's Nuln Oil) leaves a gloss behind, and is visible mostly in the deeper recesses where shadow should be. I recently picked up some matte varnish in hopes of dulling the shine on since it looks odd that the shadows are shiny.

I did a test run on an older glossy 28mm figure and it worked a treat, so I'll apply it to these eventually.

An Unexpected Burst of Painting Enthusiasm

There was a flurry of painting last week and over the weekend. I'm not sure where the motivation came from but I figured I should ride the wave.

I've been digging into my pile of Reaper Bones figures from their first Kickstarter lo those many years ago (I sold off most of them, but still have  50 or 80 or something like that) looking for figures that would be fun to paint, but also to game with.

First up is a pair of figures, their color schemes inspired by The Maxx and Julie Winters:

The Maxx was a comic book in the 90s, which I vaguely recall seeing - at the time it came out, I was in college and spent my money at bars, not comic shops though. However, I did watch the series of shorts that aired on MTV's Oddities at the time.

Here's a grab from one of the comics:

His pointy finger claws are bright yellow - the scene above makes them appear orange, but trust me, they are yellow.

In addition to the first Kickstarter Reaper did, I also purchased select sets when they had their second Kickstarter - specifically I purchased the beastmen. Here are two, with a devil/demon/succubus from the first set (all started and completed over the the last week)

I had originally thought to paint the goat-men like my hero, Black Phillip (from The Witch) but decided to lean into their slight resemblance to the Games Workshop Khorne Bloodletters that I want to pick up eventually - but were it not for my moratorium on figure purchases for the rest of the year.

A victory was achieved in painting these three - I learned how to paint black hair beyond just slapping on black as I am want to do. I watched a YouTube short and used it for ideas.

The basing gave me some fits - all five figures have integral bases that are sculpted to varying degrees. I didn't think the textured base paint would like right with them - I needed something to make a more gentle rise to the figure. In the past I've done this with green stuff, but I'm out.

Finally, I decided to mix a sludge of PVA, old coffee grounds, and two shades of flock and spread the resulting paste on the bases, then re-dip the figure into the mixture to give the ground some depth.

It worked but I think it looks like ground black pepper. Oh well.

With the figures done, I couldn't let them just sit unused, so I broke them out for game of One Page Rules, Age of Fantasy: Skirmish. 

The human faction, led by Maxx and Julie fell far short of my 200pt minimum for the game, and so I filled the points with some friends for them,  painted about eight or so years ago - a Reaper barbarian and some Gripping Beast figures I had purchased when I thought I might try Saga. Although I have never used them for Saga, I have found they make great villagers/low-level NPCs/bandits/etc.

 In any case, they would soon find themselves facing a threat from  their nightmares.

The villagers spot an evil presence emerging from the woods in the distance!

 

The Devil's Daughter has come to collect on a misguided promise from a villager.

Beast-headed men, damned for eternity, chop their way through the village defenders, but Julie has something to say about that.

While Maxx engaged the monstrous brute, Julie unleashed a magical ass-kicking on the Princess of Hell, sending her back to her brimstone keep.

Victory to the good guys!

Not pictured, the barbarian got up from the ground and walloped the goat-men. 

Maxx had managed to drop the brute's hit points and with the Princess defeated, I figured the brute wouldn't stick around. So not quite knocked out, but Maxx was in a better place at the end of turn 4.

Plus by One Page Rules standard, the game ends after four turns. It's a weird rule and I'm inclined to ignore it most times, but most games do seem to be over by then anyway.

The game was a little over 200 points per side - you can have a fun game with low figure count and the One Page Rules. I felt like the magic rules were different than from when I last played, but I may have either been 1)doing it wrong in the past or 2) just don't remember them.