End of June Cornucopia

I'm moving soon - Monday officially, although I'll have two apartments for July while I finish moving bits and pieces of things - and sorting through things to decide what to bin, what to donate, and what to pack this past week has taken up a lot of time. 

Still, I did manage to squeeze in hobby time last weekend to alleviate some of the stress of the whole thing.

First and foremost, I finished my Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. 

That "rock" is the foam core from a piece of well, foam core. I peel off the paper on the front and back and just use the foam bit.

Hers was the first base I used flowers and various grass tufts on - pleased with the results, I finished the baes on the rest of my Sisters:

One squad has predominantly red flowers, one has predominantly black flowers. The red flowers are a better product frankly, but I like having the color distinction to prevent intermingling on the tabletop. 

For Father's Day last Sunday, I received this little gem:

And it's literally little. It's Worthington's Battles of the American Revoltion : Oriskany & Freeman's Farm travel sized set. 

I've only played the Oriskany scenario so far - and it took five attempts before I got my first American win. The Americans have a restricted setup zone but the British and their Native American allies can set up anywhere on the board as long as they aren't adjacent to an American unit or inside the American setup zone.

The setup for my most recent game.

Victory is achieved by the first side to earn 6 Victory Points. VPs are earned by eliminating units and for the Americans by exiting a unit off the board via the road hex on the left edge.

End of Game, the Americans eliminated 6 British units

Each side has number of leadership points and only one can be spent per turn per side. The question of when and where to spend and on which bonus (Rally, +2 movement points to one unit, or +2 combat points to one unit) adds interest to the game.

The rules are pretty short and a far cry from something like ASLSK or Great War Commander or even Hold the Line (which I used to own). There are definitely questions that arise as a result. 

For example, can a retreating unit end up adjacent to an enemy unit that it was not in combat with previously? I originally thought no, but then I found this led to very short games - a unit taking a one step loss was then forced to take a second step loss by being adjacent to a new enemy and thus eliminated. So now I say yes. 

Another example, must a unit attack every unit it's in contact with? Some people BoardgameGeek say yes. I'm not sure about this - again it's a question of game length.

My only other, not gripe, but occasional annoyance, is that the counters fill the hexes and it's too easy to nudge adjacent units when trying to move a unit. I get that compromises must be made to be travel-size and it doesn't really bother me all that often.

Those issues aside, it's a fun, light game that is quick to setup and takes up just a small space.

I gave Scenario 2 from Great War Commander another try as well, this time intentionally placing the French at the start, rather than randomly determining how they'd deploy.

The French deployment - Leaders within command distance of other leaders allowing for many more units to be activated by a single order.

I won't do a turn by turn narrative - I need a better system for note taking for that. But, I will say, the French got off to a bad start, with friendly fire from the pregame barrage landing on one of their own.

The French received an Offensive card on the first turn and so I immediately put to use - trying to play them aggressively, in-line with the historical event.

The effect was ... not what I imagined.  Almost every French unit involved in the Offensive was broken by coordinated op-fire. 

Also visible in this picture, The French called in an artillery strike. And it nearly landed on their advancing units. smh.

Despite the rough start, the French reached the village and engaged the enemy at the point of the bayonet.

The game ended in Sudden Death with then time track reached 10. The French squeaked out a win by just two VP, but as the picture above shows, they were dominating the Germans. 

The Germans had taken shelter in buildings in the town center, but they were virtually surrounded with adjacent buildings in flames or occupied by the French.  A lone German unit, isolated at the edge of town, was essentially bypassed by the French.

Finally, I got out my lizards and orcs for some One Hour Wargames using the 'Dark Ages' rules.

The orcs had one shield-wall, one warband, three heavy cavalry (treat as knights from the Medieval rules), and a unit of goblin skrimishers. The lizards had one unit of archers (treat as Ancients archers), four warband, and one cavalry unit.

For scale, bases are 3" wide x 2" deep.

I played the scenario twice. Both times, the orcs dominated. The fact that they are predominantly cavalry means, in this scenario, their reinforcements can get where they are needed quickly. Their other benefit, the shield-wall depoloying on the hill gives them a unit with a lot of staying power (1/2 damage for shieldwall, 1/2 damage for being on a hill).

Unfortunately, it may be a bit before I can get in any wargaming again - everything is going to be boxed up later today. That said, next weekend is July 4th and I'll be running a game session of our ongoing Basic Fantasy RPG campaign or possibly a one-shot RPG related to the holiday.

Great War Commander : 23 August 1914

This was as a learning game in two respects. 

The obvious one is that this scenario, the scenario #2,  introduces on-table ordinance in the form of a German mortar and off-table artillery in the form of a "telephone" that can call local barrages for the French. The other is that it had been almost two weeks since I played last and I had become uncertain about some rules in the interim which lead to more page flipping than I thought it would.

The situation is such that the French are initiating a last counterattack before withdrawing and the Germans are tasked with holding the village of Onhaye, Belgium. 

The Germans are outnumbered but they do have the cover of the village and reinforcements (a platoon with an MG - not exactly an overwhelming force) are coming. Unlike the French in the previous scenario, the Germans are not required to setup in specified hexes and therefore are not required to start units out of cohesion. There is a limit how deep they can deploy and which columns, but beyond that, the only requirement is that all of the fox holes they are allocated have to be deployed and occupied at the start. 

There are 5 objectives in play in this scenario, three of which are near French deployment so they have a leg up in that respect, but the Germans offset this with 6 VP at the start.

The French get a free barrage before the start of turn 1 that will turn two of the buildings, determined by card draw, to rubble and suppress any units in them. Rubble reduces the defense value of the building from a +3 cover bonus to +2. If later rubble is reduced to a shellhole, the cover bonus reduces to +1.

Because it was my first attempt at the scenario and being more interested in the ordinance and barrage aspects for this first run, I, for good or for ill, opted to deploy the French randomly. I used the cards to do this (the cards all have hexes on them for randomization of effects, such as snipers, blazes, and aerial attacks). The result was a force divided into three - which, while it on the one hand enabled easy capture of objectives for the French, led to some very obviously self-inflicted difficulties coordinating attacks.

Setup, post- pre-game barrage.

As one group of French attempted to capture the village head on, one tried to advance over open ground on the right, and another from the woods to the North West. Open ground when facing machine guns is, not suprisingly, a terrible idea - although the French were luck, recovering more than they lost each time. The French attacking from the woods tried to swing around the back of the Germans, but were completely cut off without a leader after some devastating rifle fire.

As I, and thus the French, began to get the hang of artillery barrages the village was gradually brought down to rubble and shell craters. Unfortunately, the bombing did very little to the Germans occupying the village.

And then the tide began to turn.

Not only did the Germans have reinforcements scheduled to arrive, but they drew a card which gave the * additional * support. 

End of game battle for the village.

Close combats went badly for the French. Although they managed to relink the cut-off units in the back of the village, the Germans continued to hammer the French with rifle and MG fire (the mortar was poorly positioned from the start - my error - and served no role in the proceedings) and initiated their own close combats with success. Meanwhile, the French churned cards looking for Offensive, Fire, or Advance (by this point artillery barrages had become too risky - they can drift from the proposed target and strike your own units ff you're unlucky).

The game clock reached 10 - the first sudden death check for this scenario. A card was drawn and the game ended there and then.  When the points were totaled the Germans won 24 to 18. Basically then, both sides scored 18 points, but the Germans had the 6-point advantage from the start.

The final accounting.

A lot of fun and stimulation of the "little grey cells" (been watching Poirot season 1, for the first time). I think next time - if I can get the game in before too much time passes - I will be able to invest more in focusing on the decisions and less on the rules.

Also for next time: the French setup will be more deliberate, and I will put the platoon with an MG with the highest ranked leader, and the Germans will position their mortar     well away from the town and the French board entry points, to take advantage of the mortar's long range.

And, completely unrelated to the above, a WIP shot of my Hospitaller. Quite a bit left to do, but this figure is finally starting to come together.  and you can get a sense of what the final will look like. 

I'm hopeful that I'll pick up the brush again in the next few days, now that I sense completion is near.

Red Lizards Rising

These four Reaper Dark Heaven lizards took WAY too long to complete - but they are done. They will bring up two of the existing Red Lizard units to full 10-figure strength.

 

The lack of shading is intentional, I assure you.

I ran into some issues with the acrylic gloss varnish. It's been a minute since I last used it and it was kind of lumpy, even with vigorous shaking (the bottle, not me). For a good bit I was worried about it drying cloudy, but it dried mostly OK and required only minimal touch-ups to meet my less-than-exacting standards.

Of course, these four figures are the only lizards that have the goblin green basing - all of the previously completed lizard figures have been re-based to squares, but they need the full goblin green treatment. 

Maybe they'll be done before 2027?

In other news, I ordered a few things to beef up my Blessed Sisters to 2000 points: 

• 9 Sisters Repentia + a Repentia Superior (already assembled and primed - woo!) 
• A 3D printed Rhino-type thing (APC) to zip them around the battlefield. 

The printed APC was significantly less expensive than an official GW Rhino. Hopefully it holds up to game use.

OPR allows "Fanatic Sisters" (their name for Repentia) in blocks of 5 or 10  but GW annoyingly only includes 9 in a box along with a Superior. Fortunately, I have two that were on the Combat Patrol sprue I purchased awhile back for the extra Battle Sisters and the Penitent Engine, so I can fill out this unit with one of them and use the other to fill out a future, second, Repentia unit.

Btw, I would have gone 3D printed for the Repentia, but most of them look ... questionable for gaming in public.

Ultimately, I want to field a version of a Penitent Host, but for OPR - Repentia, Penitent Engines and Mortifiers, oh, my!  (Probably no arco-flagellants as I don't like the models - GW or 3D printed.)

While I eagerly await the arrival of the above, I'm prepping for a Basic Fantasy RPG session this Sunday and trying to finish up the interface for the Solo Wargamers Association's Lone Warrior index, so we can roll that out. I'm very excited that we're going to be able to offer a better glimpse at the contents of past issues beyond article titles!

The Grass is Always Greener (when it's goblin green)

It took longer than I would have liked - I've been distracted with music related activity - but still,  the work on giving my Boar Boyz "goblin green" basing has been completed! 

The green horde!

I'm thinking of trying Dragon Rampant, 2nd ed. for my fantasy games.One more boar boy would give me three six-figure units. But, that's not likely to happen any time soon - fortunately, Dragon Rampant supports varying figure counts per unit (also good because my infantry units have ten figures, not twelve).

Some recently arrived additions include this lot of five old metal Adepta Sorotias Seraphim.
 

I much prefer the way these look compared to the modern Seraphim plastic kits. Especially as this lot came with the helmeted Superior with plasma pistol and one of the Seraphim has flame pistols. 

The slotta bases they came with however won't work for my purposes - so I may order some 3d printed bases of the correct diameter. I intend to paint this unit in the colors of the Order of the Sacred Rose (white armor, red fabric bits).  

Inspired by my reading of Hammer & Anvil, I've decided to build up my Necron force to something suitable for the battles of Sanctuary 101 (where the Sisters battle Necrons). I'll primarily try to follow the novel for scenario ideas but White Dwarf 218 (1998, 2nd ed. 40K, which is perfect for me) has a Sanctuary 101 scenario that looks feasible with only slightly reduced numbers to fit on my smaller playing space. 

(Apparently Sanctuary 101 scenarios also appear in WD 469 and 521? There are also some wargamers who have posted their own versions)

For my birthday (last month), I was gifted this Necron Overlord (and some green transluscent plastic rod to mount on the staff) :

Old and metal!

It came painted like that. But, although I think it looks great, my Necrons are all painted as Novokh Dynasty  So, I'll strip this figure and then paint to match the rest. Eventually.

This figure will serve as the leader, clearly. And that just leaves some Destroyers to round out the force to match the White Dwarf article.

There's quite a bit still in progress on my paint table - including the Hospitaller, ten Termagants, and four lizard warriors. I am hoping to finish up the lizards this weekend as I will have a good bit of time to do that and they don't need much really.

 

  

Plague Marines! Boar Boyz! Goblin Green Bases, Oh My!

Although I had not planned to do it, I ended up completely repainting my old school metal Plague Marines to match their much larger plastic brethren.  You can view the old paint job on this post.

More tufts arrived, so I can finally finish all of the bases.

The color change doesn't make them any taller, but I like that they blend in better.

I managed to finish assembling and painting all of the Boar Boyz I got myself for Christmas (the Plague Marines were also self Christmas gift). Two of them just needed to be glued to their boars, but the rest were in various states of disrepair. 

I haven't taken a picture of them yet because I'm just starting in on basing.

And I started with the seven Boar Boys I picked up previously (painted by their previous owner). 

I decided that I want to approximate the old Goblin Green basing common for Citadel/GW figures way back when (Not having been a wargamer back then, I have no nostalgia for it, I just love the way it looks).

So, using a recipe I found here: https://www.goonhammer.com/how-to-base-everything-goblin-green-bases/

I tried and ...
 

I love the way it came out! I could probably dry brush a little more yellow on top but I think it looks good enough.

The picture below shows my two fantasy armies lined up for no other reason than I wanted to. This was taken *before* I did the bases above, so any green you see, came already painted on the bases.

I get giddy just looking at this! The bases are 5" x 2.5", ostensibly for One Hour Wargames Dark Ages.

Although there are round-bases pictured above - all of the lizards have been rebased to squares, just like the Black Orcs on the far left. I decided I just like it better. The difference is that most of the lizards have integral bases, and I haven't decided if I'll make an effort to smooth the transition or just say "who cares?"and leave them on little hills.

Because, when I think about it, I really don't care if the are on little hills. 

After watching copies come and go at prices I could not justify, a reasonably priced copy of, Warhammer 40K, Second edition, came along. And for reasons I can't fathom  Blogger refuses to post the picture without rotating it. So, no picture, I guess.

I also acquired a copy of the Wargear book (literally a book dedicated to the variety of weapons and their abilities), which is generally available at throw away prices. No picture of this because I haven't taken one.

I have PDFs of both, found online, but I like being able to flip through the pages. The artwork in the books is perfect. I have a regularly expressed preference for Moldvay B/X D&D, the rules and its artwork, and this era of 40K feels like it's in the same lineage.

Finally, here's what's currently on my painting table:

The second figure from the left in the front row, on a "rock" (foam core), is an old metal Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. She is so tiny. So so tiny. I think this figure was undersized compared to its contemporaries even.

I ordered it at the tail end of 2025 (so she doesn't count towards my purchase tracking), but it just arrived this past week. I bought it because I had read Faith & Fire (which features Hospitaller Verity as an important secondary character, and I have now also completed Hammer & Anvil, and she's in that, too. More on those books in another post).

You can't see it, but there's a mutant Chaos Cultist in the rear left, in front of the bright green crocodile. I picked up the cultist because of Faith & Fire, as well. Not because there are cultists in the novel, but because I want to use the figure as a psyker for Space Weirdos games. This figure looked way more like how I imagine psykers than any figure, "official" or otherwise, I found.

All of the lizards are Reaper Dark Heaven. The in-progress red lizards will let me round out two of my existing units - the red lizard warriors and the red lizard archers. I haven't decided how I'll paint the unprimed lizards. I am thinking of going with the spider-man lizard They'll act as a guard for the frog shaman.

The Tyranids are the first figures I'm working on from the large 9th ed. 40K starter set I picked up last year on ebay for a song. Eventually the 20 in the box will join the 20 I already have. I have no idea where or when I'd *need* 40 termagants, but painting them is easy and I can just pop on the Golden Girls or Bob's Burgers and listen while I paint.

 

Painting Continues to the Surprise of All!

Somehow, I've already managed to get some painting done in 2026! Most of this post is works-in-progress but in an effort to keep my momentum, I thought I'd take some photos to share where I'm at. Plus, I have to document completed figures vs purchased figures for my one and only goal for the year.

First up, four battle sisters (to be fair they were started in December):

Their completion brings me up to two 7-figure squads - which was my target (decided upon after reviewing PDFs of the 2nd ed. 40K Sisters of Battle codex, 2nd ed. Codex Imperialis, and 3rd ed. Codex: Witchhunters, as well as FUBAR 40K 3rd Edition, and FUBAR 40K Boarding Actions - Boarding Parties)

I have four of my Christmas gift Orc Boar Boyz in progress: 

The fellow on the left is closest to done - although I see I missed the wrappings on his shield arm - his shield is in-progress. The others have been base coated only, with no touch-ups or highlights.

For their skin color, I wanted something to blend in with the others I have that were painted by a previous owner. To that end, I'm using Delta Ceramcoat Medium Foliage Green as the base coat, and picking out raised bits/edges with Delta Ceramcoat Leaf Green. While it's no Goblin Green of yore, I think it has a nice cartoonish look, which was my objective.

Most of the boars have lost their tails,  which is typical for these older figures. Unfortunately, the few that did have tails, also are now without them due to my not so nimble fingers. I wonder if the more recently produced boars have this problem. It's OK, I may make tails for all of them from wire later, or I may just call it a badge of honor for these veteran sculpts. 

Finally, I started in on my other Christmas present, seven old school (90's sculpt, metal) Plague Marines:

As a reminder these were painted by the previous owner - but somewhat sloppily. 

I've begun putting base coats on bits they had left as primer or that have been worn down to bare lead again and on the weapons (I don't think they should be the same color as the rest of the figure). The previous owner used a fairly glossy and thick varnish, making blacking out the weapons more annoying than it needed to be, but I don't want to strip the figures either. I know I want to keep some of the coppery colored state, but there are definitely details I want to pick out in non-metallic paint! 

In any case, the biggest thing that needed addressing was the basing. The figures came mounted on their original 25mm slotta bases. That size base doesn't fit in with the rest of my science fiction/40K collection.

On top of that, the figures are tiny compared to the modern Primaris-era figures.

 To make up a bit of the height difference, I followed advice I'd seen elsewhere and:

1. Clip them free of their old 25mm slotta bases
2. Clip the tab (that goes in the slotta base) off the mini (thereby depreciating the figure on the collector's market. Fortunately, I'm not a reseller.) 
3. Use cork or other basing material to give some height to the figure. 

I don't have any cork, but I have plenty of foamcore sheets available. So, I peeled off the paper from each side, which left me with just the foam. I then broke and tore the foam into roughly rock-like shapes and glued them to new 32mm bases (3d printed, cheaply available on eBay and Etsy). 

 

Here the weapon-size difference might cause some to balk at fielding both on the same table, but that doesn't bother me as someone who fields 1/30,1/32,1/35 figures with 1/37,1/43,1/48, 1/50, and 1/56 vehicles on the same table regularly. I will keep them in separate units however.

The foam stones were primed with Delta Ceramcoat Raw Sienna, then a light coat of Folk Art Desert Sand, followed by a wash of Citadel's Aggrax Earthshade. Once dry, they were given a 1st highlight with very watered down Folk Art Desert Sand. I will undoubtedly apply another layer of the Desert Sand, less watered down, on the flat bits and edges.

Tufts and such will be added, but I'm currently out of them. 

I think Nurgle bases need a little Nurgle's rot on them, but I prefer to spend my money on other things than a very limited use Citadel technical paint. Previously, for my Nurgle's Rotters Blitz Bowl team and my modern Plague Marine figures, I mixed my own, but was way off the mark with the end result. This was my third attempt and it by far my most successful in terms of matching the vision in my head. 

It's still not a great match for Nurgle's rot, but it works for me. For now. And I've painted over my existing Plague Marine bases with it (see above size comparison photos)

I really should do a better job documenting my steps, in case anyone else finds themselves in the same boat. While I don't have specific ratios, what I can say is, I found a YouTube video that was inspirational and showed me my previous attempts were off because I relied only on green paints. Yellow appears to be key.

So for this mix, I started with Apple Barrel Lime Sherbert and Delta Ceramcoat Pale Yellow in roughly equal parts, and a huge glob of PVA to make a viscous puddle. The result was pleasing, a bit like pastel Easter candy, which is not at all like any kind of rot. Unless you count the tooth decay that follows eating too much candy and not practicing good oral hygiene.

Enter Reaper Pale Saffron. 

This color is very close to yellow mustard (like the kind you may have in your fridge) and it pushed the mix into green slime territory, which was good enough for me! How much Pale Saffron? I have no idea. That's the part I wish I had documented.

The rot was then coated with gloss varnish to give it a wet look.

Finally, just for fun, I've officially "converted" my white Solido Pz IV  to an Adepta Sororitas tank with some spare decals:

 It's been a busy two weeks!

 

July in Review

I spent most of July away from home but yet I managed a good bit of gaming.

The month kicked off with my One Hour Wargames modification for fantasy gaming before I headed out on the road:

Skeletons, giant and ordinary, held up the orc advance.

While I tried a variety of other rules, I kept coming back to these and for now, they'll be used when I finally get around to kicking off a fantasy campaign.

I spent a week working in Florida, but brought figures and some low-effort cardstock terrain for One Page Rules Grimdark Future: Firefight:

The game was played in a VERY small area - around 18" a side if I recall. Definitely fun to be had in small spaces. The figures are all 15mm from Khurasan purchased in the early 2010s.

Everything needed for the games (I played several times) fit into but a portion of my pack:

And just for giggles, here's the view from the balcony of the condo we stayed in:

We came home for a day and then my son and I drove to Western New York to visit family and friends. On this trip, I brought my Games Workshop figures and the full size terrain:

I only had a chance to play once while there, using my mom's kitchen table. We also had a family round of Life, which admittedly, isn't particularly deep, but there was a lot of laughter which is pretty much what I hope for from a family game night.

Once back, I got it in my head to play a tournament of sorts using Grimdark Future: Firefight. The playing space I decided on was 36" x 24".

Game 1 and 2 ...

Alien Hive/Robot Legions vs Plague Brothers. It was a close game  but the Plague Brothers won on the last turn

Battle Brothers vs Blessed Sisters. The Battle Brothers crushed the Sisters, outscoring on objectives and eliminating all but one of them!

Game 3 featured Alien Hive/Robot Legions vs Blessed Sisters:

One of my favorite moments form the game. The game was a draw.

Game 4 - the title bout if you will - was a battle between Battle Brothers and Plague Brothers:

Battle Bros. deploy their squad on the left.

Plague Bros. deploy on the right.

A view from the Plague Bros. end. They won the roll to deploy first and were able to claim multiple objectives and take a defensive posture in turn 1.

End of Turn 1. The Battle Bros. have covered a lot of ground, in part due to their leader having Advanced Tactics which lets him move three units 6" if they are within 12" of him at the start of his activation.

End of turn 2. Both sides hold one objective. The third (upper right) is moved to "contested" status with the Battle Bros within the 3" distance to lay claim to it.

Turn 3. The Battle Bros. concentrate on hurling themselves at the contested objective - not without cost.

Turn 4 ended with the last objective still contested. Each side captured one objective and the game ended in a draw. In terms of losses, the Battle Brothers lost more units, but that's not how scoring is done in the basic rules.

Painting was sacrificed in July - I didn't want to bring paints with me.

Still, I did manage to complete the first four Saurian Starhost figures when I was home:

I will make three more as close combat specialists, but I need to buy more oat milk. Trust me, it makes sense!

August will see a return to gaming with others - this coming weekend hopefully will be either Firefight or maybe the Age of Fantasy: Skirmish rules at a local-ish game store. Then in two weeks, our family and friends BFRPG campaign is slated to continue with and admin session and short adventure.

With any luck, I might even get some paint applied to figures.

See you next month!

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!