A Hobby Heavy Weekend

Every once in awhile, the stars align and a weekend arrives with sufficient hobby time to do multiple activities.

I started the weekend off by finishing up a couple of new additions for my Tanitians (aka "not Carthaginians"). Up first is a unit leader and an ordinary swordsperson:

The figure on the left, who will function as a leader figure in rules that have them, is by Classic Toy Soldiers (CTS), from their Carthaginians box. The fellow on the right is from HaT, Spanish Infantry I believe it's called.

The CTS figure appears to be Spanish infantry as well - albeit substantially taller. In fact, I believe the HaT figures from the Spanish infantry box are undersized (compared even to the HaT Carthaginians).

Another CTS figure will serve as the army commander:

His shield design was copied from an Eldritch horror font set. Size-wise he fits in perfectly with the HaT Carthaginians.

Finally, for the Tanitians, a figure I'm most happy about. She started out as an SCS Direct mermaid figure and will now serve as a Tanitian warrior-priestess (in Fistful of Lead:Bigger Battles, she'd be a hero figure):

I lopped off her tailfin, and then a bit of PVA coated tissue covered her mer-person lower extremeties. Some tin-foil folded on itself many times and glued over the mermaid's sad little wand (or was it a dagger?), formed her sword. I *may* paint some tentacles coming up over skirt, but then again, I may not.

At this point, I am five of the black-figure pottery figures from completing my originally planned Tanitian force.

Because I am a man of extremes, I tried my hand at some 2mm figures as well:

I think it's pretty clear they are Austrians, late war, circa 1917-1918. Close-up (below) you can see how the paint was sort of hit-or-miss on my part, but the figures, at least the prone ones, are clearly there. Some of the other poses confuse me as to what they represent.

The base is the 20th Century infantry base from Irregular Miniatures. They are, to borrow a phrase, "cheap as chips." They also paint very quickly. It took maybe 5 minutes from base coat to flock to do these two bases and I could have done a good dozen or so in barely any more time.

 I have in mind to do a divisional level game set in Italy, in WWI (obviously).  However, 2mm may not be the ideal choice, as much as I like them. Everything looks fine in bright light, but by and large, I like dim lights and that makes the figures nearly impossible to see against the base. I also really want to do a Granny Grate army (I did some tests a decade a go that I was quite pleased with but I had not project in mind at the time and so painted some generic British red-coats), so I'll try that next.

Early Sunday morning, I finished the last three of my Marine Iguana inspired Lizard Warriors:

This gives me a complete unit of ten. By my original plans, I need only complete the shaman and the force will be complete (I do have a few other figures to paint though to act as handlers for the Spinosaurus, but they are not necessary).

Finally, all work and no play blah blah blah.  On Sunday, I was invited by Cloud Captain to join him and a friend for a game of Age of Fantasy out at Hobby Town.  It was a battle of Greeks (28mm) vs Ogres (Cloud Captain's 54mm barbarians for our planned Venus games and a frost dragon). 

Cloud Captain shared command of his ogres with me, so that I could learn the rules.

Greek general attacks the frost dragon.

My favorite picture - this fellow held on to the end, bravely, but futilely, swinging his weapon above his head at the ogres on the hill.

Although we ogres lost, it was great fun and a rare non-solo game for me. The rules are straightforward and I would say by the end of turn 2 that I had a decent enough grasp on them. 

You can pretty much map army ideas to existing concepts (apparently, if you support the patreon, you get access to a points calculator for full customization). My Tanitians, for example, map well to the Dark Elves (and I plan to field them as such), while the lizards are clearly Saurians.

I hope to get a solo game in soon using the rules.The rules would certainly work for battles among the various native Venusian factions. Incorporating the Europeans with their rifles and Gatlings may require a small amount of effort to do so.

Games (how's that for a generic title?)

Gaming for the new year has kicked off with a revisit of a game from Minden Games, Battle Over Britain.

As you can probably surmise, it's a representation of WWII aerial combat. Less obvious perhaps is that it's 1 on 1, is abstract, and plays quite quickly. There is a solitaire module which I own (it adds little to the existing solitaire rules but does give you more planes to choose from) and other air battles as well.

d12 are hit points, white d6 are ammo remaining.

It's an interesting little game that feels right even if it looks completely wrong. The rules are straightforward but there are enough special rules and optional rules to add flavor and variety.

The average game is probably less than 10 minutes, so it's a prefect space filler or you can play a longer campaign of connected battles, if desired, including one where you play a particular pilot through multiple (hopefully) encounters.

In the picture, I'm using my laptop as the playing space - I have been playing Verdun a lot on Steam and decided I need to shut the laptop down and enjoy some screen-free time (my son isn't the only one who needs to step away from the computer sometimes!).

Also of note, my copy of The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game arrived:

I purchased this on a whim on Black Friday - the price was something like $9.99 USD. Even if it's a terrible game, it comes with figures (I'll give the game a proper post once we play it).

Finally, some figures have entered the preparation stages:

Two things are probably worth noting about the picture.

On the human figures, the black that follows the mold lines is soot from a candle. It ends up on the needle that I heat up and run along the lines. I've mentioned using the hot needle before - it works well enough to smooth them out without marring the figure too badly, but I care less and less about mold lines (with the exception of the one on the helmet). Life is too short.

The gold figure is a Classic Toy Solders Carthaginian. I had no idea they had Carthaginians of their own until recently. Everyone always focuses on HaT (like the figure to his left). The shield is a little skimpy - accurate or not I don't know- but it'll do for my purposes

Lizard Warriors Big and Small

One of the problems with relying on the internet for purchase decisions is that you are beholden to reviewers providing info that you need and your own ability to find said info. You would think that as a "librarian by training" (I have an MLS) I would be good at the latter, but not that is not necessarily so.

Case in point - I recently ordered and received a box of Wargames Atlantic 28mm "Lizard Men". The reviews I found talked about how well they fit with this or that figure. What I failed to grasp  or determine was that without specifying an exact size dimension and not possessing those comparison figures, I was left guessing if they would mix well with Reaper lizard warriors:

If by "mix well" I meant "could be their children" then I suppose they do indeed. However, as that is not what I meant, I'm at a bit of a loss. B, the person who I will be playing Venusian based games with in-person, suggested they might be skinks (Games Workshop makes skinks for their lizard forces that are notably smaller than then regular lizards). This is an option.

We're now looking at using the big battle version of Fistful of Lead (it has edged out G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for now), I could make a larger than normal unit and give them some penalties for their small size. 

In any case, they are definitely not going to be the majority of my lizard troops as I was planning. Instead, I picked up a few more Reaper lizard men to top off my existing figures at a full unit, plus command and some archers for the howdah on the triceratops. I still have plenty of other unit ideas for this force.

 By far the best inexpensive-ish 54mm lizard warrior choice is the SCS Direct figure (available on eBay and Amazon):

I get the feeling the number of lizard warriors you get per box of creatures varies. There were six in my box and that means another box is needed eventually unless I can find them in job lots on eBay. 

They are a soft plastic - more rubbery than not, in my opinion. I coated this one with Modge Podge before hitting it with the black acrylic. It scales well with the Armies in Plastic French Legionnaire. The lack of pose variety (just one) might seem damning but they are hackable if that's your thing. If I get extras I may try to do some customization, but for now they'll stay as is. 

Finally, I have from time to time seen on various blogs, people posting a beverage they enjoyed while gaming or painting. So here is mine:

 

I am a sucker for new flavors of soda. Being this is Mtn Dew, I didn't go in with high hopes. And therefore I was not disappointed. It was in fact, not bad. It was so not bad, that I'd drink it again. It's not so good that I'd hoard bottles before it's discontinued.

It most definitely, and disturbingly, tastes like gingersnap cookies.

Planning for the Rest of the Year and Beyond

One of the many enjoyable aspects of our hobby is planning. Of course, planning leads to lead and plastic piles, so it's fraught with danger and one should proceed with caution. One definitely shouldn't shop on ebay while taking pain medication for a tooth extraction.

As I hinted at in a previous post, I have some new projects underway. One is a French & Indian War  project - this has no defined parameters but I do know that I want to paint French regulars so that's what I'll start with.

The other project is a Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) project which will encompass both solo games and face to face games with a local 54mm wargamer. There are two of us in the area!

We have decided upon a game set on Venus. We'll likely use GASLIGHT to start, since it's one set we're both familiar with (I haven't played a lot of rule sets that aren't me just making stuff up).

That's what the French Foreign Legion figures from Armies in Plastic that I posted recently will be for - although I have both British and Russian colonial forces, French Legionnaires fighting lizard folk on Venus was my first venture into building proper wargaming armies (albeit in 15mm). The Earth colonial forces will play a small roll in the wars of the Venusian factions, so I don't need many of them, maybe 10 + a crew for a Gatling.

At least that's our current plan.

The aforementioned ebay shopping spree was not hypothetical but based on experience. I had two teeth extracted last Friday (not fun and not recommended, but the pain leading up to that was worse, so ...). The pain killer haze may have weakened my willpower. At least that's my excuse.

As a result, I purchased several boxes of Hat 1/32 ancients figures including: Roman triari, Roman hastati, Spanish infantry, and Carthaginians - they're short a few figures each but enough of each for  10-12 figure units. Except for the Gauls, these will make up one of the Venusian factions (for my own notes, I'm calling them Asterians). 

Hastati not pictured - they haven't arrived yet

But wait! What about lizard folk? 

Ah yes, a classic Venusian trope and one of my favorite D&D monsters to boot 

For them I am thinking a mix of 28mm (hear me out!) and 54mm figures. 

The latter are exceptionally difficult to come across in any quantity or a price I could afford in any quantity more than a handful.  However, SCS Direct sells a figure that will pass for a lizard warrior and is available in relatively inexpensive packs of mixed creatures. It was seeing them painted up on Quantrill's Toy Soldiers that sold me on them. One pack yielded me 6 such figures (10 is my starting goal):

By their smooth skin and serpent necks, I have inferred that they inhabit seaside marshes and are fond of Venus's vast oceans.

Size comparison to an Armies in Plastic Russian.

For a leader type, I picked up a 54mm figure from Iron Wind - a lizard shaman. I guess Iron Wind has a game about magic-users or something and a whole line of figures for it. To be honest, this figure's existence inspired the idea of uniting different tribes (read: figure scales) of lizard folk as my original plan was just to field a force of 28mm lizard warriors. I'm still awaiting delivery of this one, eagerly at that!

Eventually I plan to order some Wargames Atlantic 28mm multi-part lizard warriors. The box includes  parts for 24 figures for less than $35 usd which is quite a bargain, although you do have to assemble them yourself. Much like Ikea costing less because you have to do the tedious part.  

The figures come with a variety of head and weapon options but i'll be sticking with classic melee weapons. Sadly they don't come with bows or any warriors with shields. For those, I'll probably pick up some Reaper figures - Bones or Dark Heaven.

In any case, to my mind, the 28mm figures make fine pygmy lizard warriors.  

I have some Reaper Bones lizard folk to serve as proofs of concept:

A 28mm Reaper Bones mini next to an Armies in Plastic Legionnaire.

 As an example of what I intend visually, I painted one up quickly last night. I'm pretty pleased for what amounts to a single rushed paint session. Although in close up I am finding so much to fix!

The gloss is subtle on these figures perhaps due to the general lack of smooth surfaces?

And another comparison example:

In Space: 1889, the Russians have a force on Venus and they wear the white tops / green trousers. He probably should aim lower.

The SCS Direct set also includes harpie figures that I think will serve nicely as Parrot People (they are found in the jungles of Venus. Duh.),  to be supplemented by the Hat Gaul figures (one of the poses has a winged helmet and one pose is naked, good enough for Parrot People for me!) and maybe some Chin Toys Aztecs. Those latter aren't cheap and they only provide eight in a box.

What about all of the other figures in the assortment? Some will be painted, many will end up in my son's toy soldier bin.

Yes, all of this represents exponential growth of my plastic pile. And painting queue.

On the plus side, my Austro-Hungarians and Italians are moving along nicely and their portion of the pile is steadily decreasing. Hopefully this weekend I'll sneak in another game of Trench Hammer.