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44 down, 260 odd to go

Two posts in a month, wondes will never cease :)

Well i managed to finish some 15mm SCiFI figures from GZG, some sort of yanks in space types. Black Flak jackets, grey jumpsuits and white helmets, yes its the rebel alliance :) as suggested by my 11 year old son Craig. GZG Alien Mercs to follow and PEndraken 10mm Aliens all based for skirmish using the yahoo group 'gears of war' ruleset FUBAR, easy enough set with some nice ideas that lend themselves to house rules, and they are FREE :)

off to Warfare at Reading Saturday... Inspiration needed still... need to get to 1000 PPs by January 1st

Shaun

two months to go..... oops

Well after two weeks of training I finally start at my store tomorrow. No more 2 hour drive home thru London traffic.... 12 mph is not what my car is built for, hopefully tomrrows journey will take closer to 12 minutes as its only a couple of miles :)

Still havent found my painting keen tho...

Projects i should be painting are :

10mm American civil war
15mm Sci Fi
28mm Ancients - Dark Ages
28mm Fantasy armies

Stuff i have brought recently include...

28mm Conquest Normans Plastic :)
28mm Plastic WSS Infantry from WargamesFactory
Lots n Lots of multi slot bases (plinths as my mate Bob calls them) from Warbases.com

I really cant seem to shift this painting block tho......

I recently dropped off some painted AWI figures to an old friend Ron Ringrose, he usually rebases them to fit in with his main armies, when we realised that this is the third time he has bought my AWI collection, as we looked over his various collections I could pick out figures I have painted over the last 20 odd years.... one day I will keep some for me.... maybe. The figures were mid battle on his impressive battlefield in the 'garden shed' wargames room, photos will apparently be online curtesy of Joe Dever at some point, Inspiration and Desperation in equal measures tho.

Cheers Shaun

new beginnings...

Hi all,

Am starting a new job on Monday.... am sure the end of my hobby draught will follow quickly after that.

I have realised I paint to de-stress from work, no stress = no inclination to paint.

SELWG here I come, please please please inspire me......

cheers Shaun

blink.... 2 months? really

Well that went quick,

Work is nearly finished, got the redundancy money (pfft... thats what 15 years loyalty is worth?) and am now on temporary weeks work emptying the last stock from the warehouse.

I have also been busy doing commission work and finally finished some ancient units that were for sale at Salute, along with my AWI stuff .. i will get to keep some oneday!! Anyway managed to break evene on the day and stil have some bits left to sell on ebay or at bring n buys at coming up shows.

Also bought some unit bags from Renegade to try and turn over for a small profit.

Gaming has been slack of late, but mostly 'FLying Lead' moderns and VBCW.

and LAPR season started well, cold event, low turnout but did manage to get very, very drunk :)

cheers Shaun

BUFs n Stuffs..

Hi, here is a picture of the newly completed but yet unvarnished BUF force for our little diversion into the British Civil War. The force currently consists of Captain Richard Gryphen, Dick to his mum (he has no friends obviously ;)) and his right hand man Sgt Filtcher. Cpl Pointer is usually found hanging with Pvt Victors and Pvt Lodder on the HMG, while Ensign Logg carries the Totem for the force. Pvt Lewis is armed with a drum fed LMG and then all the rest rifle armed. The system 'Flying Lead' uses WYSIWYG for equiping forces, so its pretty easy to work out who has what in the game, quality n skills add to the generation giving the Officers n specials qualities beyond the regular troops, altho with such a newly raised force there game quality means they do little but run away!!

The figures are BUF from Musketeer Miniatures, in 28mm.

The preview shots are of MM Gardia troops, painted as English Police.

A Reaver casting, 28mm Necromancer, painted as Al'Istar K'Rawlee, British Occultist Leader.

A Copplestone Future cop, 28mm, painted as Prime Minister Mosley.

and a gaggle of Copplestone Gangster Dames, 28mm, painted as scenario props ;)

All will be revealed !!!!

Cheers Shaun

Cavalier... VBCW?

Hi all

Well the first show of the year occured and a new mini project has been started, kinda..?

Well 'flying Lead' is still flavour of the month and while at the show i saw the Musketeer Miniatures figure for a 'Very Britich Civil War'... men in skirts and fascists? I'm in!!!

So 90£ later i have core forces for BUF, Regulars, Scots convernantors and Anglican League units... plus some sailors i will wedge in :)
Rich (of the surfer shack blog, and author of flying lead :)) picked up some figures for his Cornish Seperatists and a bag-o-vehicles :) let the Lead Fly i recon.. game one saw my BUF handed their arses by Birtie Wooster... so all is cool with the world :)

Regrets, yeah i didnt buy the bags of WW1 brits and Germans (and maybe french !!) from the Bring n Buy, money is tight to be honest, but i think i could of managed to justify it in the long run.. probably...

So IF the owner of those figures ( i beleive they were Foundry) wants to get in touch with a view to maybe a swap of figures, or Services... or cash if they prefer still ... feel free to leave a message :)

cheers Shaun

Moments of Clarity... then back into a blury reality

HI all,

Really being inspired by this to do something with my abandoned SYW Prussian n Austrians...

http://http://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/2010/02/french-attack-fort-harilon.html

While not a player of HOTT I have DBx'd and I do play games using the Songs of Blades Engine, I know its still a game of 6 n 1's but somehow I feel less agreaved at loosing my rookie cops to gangster on a skateboard, yeah i still rolled a 1 to Richards 6, but... he is on a skateboard!! how cool is that!!

The base sizes also fit in nicely with Impetus, if i am ever allowed to play those again.

I Rebased all my ancient Romans onto 50x25 GW bases last year, not keen on rebasing again, making 12x6 sabots and having more units appeals, altho more appealing is just doing it in 10mm..... gaaaaagh

I mean looking at all my figures, projects and just WTF boxes of lead n plastic makes me wonder when i will actually get around to finishing anything anyway. I like 25mm figures, it is really what the hobby is all about.. isnt it? tho?

BUT the 10mm units look cool too, and make a 6'x4' table for 25mm figures, into the equivalent of a 18'x10' for 10mm units....

I have mostly used 8cm by 4cm bases for my 10mm Roman based in 3 ranks of 10 figures, looks mighty meaty... then my 15mm Romans are based in 3 ranks of 6, same sized base... then the 25m Romans are esentially on a 10cm by 5 cm base... oh which have i played with the most... hmm none of the have really been used more than three times anyway!! and who do they fight, well the only ones not invovled in civil war actions are the 15s which can take on the Barbarian Warbands... too much DIVERSITY still after around 6 years of purging, painting and purging again..

With the impending doom of redundancy I find myself thinking of resale values and streamlining the collection yet again, the 25mm units I am feeling may need to be sold on for now as much as it pains me, I know I can replace them one day, with Lottery winnings or something. Painted 15mm doesnt really have a resale value that i have found, but i have so little of it that to catch up with the grand scale stuff might costs more than it is worth, also there is hardly any of it with paint on!! The 10mm was bought n painted quickly to keep.... is pretty much complete and not in need of being added to either.

so what floundering projects do i have to possibly sell...

AWI Brits n Americans... around 600 figures in units of 24, 12 or 6 horse - 95% finished
Ancient Romans.. around 400 figures in units of 24, 12 or 6 horse - 95% finished
Ancient Allies n stuff.. around 300 figures - unpainted
Franco - Prussians ... around 1000 figures - 20% painted
Napoleonics... around 300 figures - unpainted
ECW ... around 300 figures - based n undercoated
GW 40k stuff ... around 600 figures plus vehicles - unpainted, some BNIB tanks but old
GW Fantasy ... around 600 figures
Warzone Plastics ... 240 figures - unassembled
Warmachine Khabdor ... 100 figures - painted by my mate Jon
Hordes Skorne .. BNIB 8 boxes of core units

40mm Lord of the Rings figures .. pre-painted around 1200 figures, including mounted
12mm MechWarrior - pre-painted clix stuff

15mm Romans
15mm Warband
15mm Suleucid
15mm Rennaisance Italians n French
15mm Fantasy Elves n Undead


and then there is the age old problem of where is best to sell it, i guess the new season of shows is comming up, bring n buys maybe, if i had more followers i could flog them straight off here

still if i am sat on my arse doing nothing else than painting figures its still constructive in the long run...

i've rambled..

January Painting

From my logs...

8 x 30 figure 10mm Old Glory 'Dutchy of Warsaw' Infantry units
4 x 30 figure 10mm Old Glory 'Nassua' Infantry units
4 x 8 mounted figure 10mm Old Glory 'British Light Dragoons' Cavalry units
4 x 8 mounted figure 10mm Old glory ' French chassuers' Cavalry units
2 x 12 mounted figure 10mm Old Glory ' French Carrabiniers' Cavarly units
3 x 8 mounted figure 10 mm Old Glory 'French and British Hussars' Cavalry units

all based for use with either LaSalle or BlackPowder

7 bases of 15mm Samurai based for Impetus but being used with BP Ancients - 56 figures

so 640 figure... rounded out to 222 Painting Point at 3 per 1 for 10mm and 2 for 1 at 15mm

no 28mm's painted this month tho

Purchases included old glory 10mm figures, more paint, wotr 25mm perry plastic and 2 board games; Descent and Small world... both aimed at playing more games with my son at weekends, altho i cant see why they wont become an evening option with Richard or indeed at the club nights.

new camera, test shots

here is a 25mm perry plastic, 10mm old glroy lancer and 28mm GW orc...

its a samsung 10.2m pixel on macro lense....

62£ from CEX second hand shop.

old camera was a coolpix 500 ... guess it will have to do..

Shaun

Rules...

A quick post on rules we are playing currently, starting with the most played...

Black Powder, this is not a review but a list of what i like about them...

They are fun, a bit of a no brainer really...
the command pips is a simplified version of warmaster, roll 2d6 under the command value and let the troops fly across the table, no micro measuring and angles rubbish, just get them in and dont spare the bayonets!!
The units stay on the table til they run away, no figure removal to slow the game down or loose figures to drop on the floor!!
D6s.. lots of them
the use of on table markers and damage pips for casualties, no off table grids to tick the boxes off of... "which unit was that? oh have you got a rubber.. piece of bread? anything?"
simple army morale and break rules that are realistic, well to me anyway

These rules are just so generic and adaptable that we have retrofitted them into ancients and fantasy using our old warmaster bases.... worked really well.. we play these for the fun factor

LaSalle

Fun - igo ugo activations, but the reserves can be a pain to arrive, army builder is very useful
D6s - for everything, by the handful.. nice and easy, roll to hit, roll to save... cry when the unit rolls 4 or less on two dice...
Units on table - these are multi-based to change formation, prefer the 'Grande Armee' approach of one stand but this is for smaller battles, will wait and see what 'blucher' does...
Markers - again am liking the disorder marker and casualties pips, its so easy and convenient
Army Morale - 33% loses and you roll over the turn number, sorted!! simples!!
hmmmmm, same reasons as BP really, except i win more with these rules and they are purely Napoleonic in feel... playing the period feel to them, not just a game of toys for some reason, we have used the army builder to make the black powder games more Napoleonic and less 70s airfix army.. ie British highlanders and scot greys vrs French old guard and Cuirrasiers!!

Songs of Blades and Whatevers....

These are the current choice of rules for Skirmish action.... Drums and shakos for sharpe, fear and faith for zombies and soon 'flying lead' for future wars stuff i am collecting... the concept I like here is very DBX, in the opposed dice rolls and doubling kills, simple and fun and quick!! oh and D6s and a very very nifty and nice activations sequence...

Battlefield evolution

WW2 company actions covered here... d6s, fun, simplistic... think there is a trend forming... we are supposed to be starting a pacific campaign at the club with these rules and as i cant be canadian i opted for ozzies, the rules can be very brutal in a 40k way, in that i move and you can shoot the shit out of me way, but they work better than everything we have tried so far... and that list is long!!!

BAsic Impetus and IMpetus...

Want to play this more than i do.... currently just building forces for it, even if they are being pushed into playing BlackPowder with... i like the hit on 5s n 6s thing with these rules, it worked for me, also the unit diarama stands are great, the stats worked well and allowed for some nice match ups with my romans and barbarians, altho the urge to add magic was never far away!!

DiscGame

THis was a simplefied version of warmaster i made to take to LARP events, but ended using with my son to play at home. It ironically seems to be a mix of DBX activation, warmaster unit stats and LaSalle morale, played on a grid 6x8... i wrote them 5 years ago on 5 index cards!! have now finished 4 complete armies and have 8 more in construction or half painted, GW plastics on 7cm disc bases from GW. I have lately been tinkering with them but not sure they needed it...

Rules - the future

One thing i have noticed is we (ie me and rich) do like to get rulesets and have a little tinker with them, so much so that Ganesha Games new rule set 'Flying Lead' is actually written by Rich becase he tinkered so much with a playtest set he was given that he basically re-wrote it for them!! I think that is why we have gravitated towards Black Powder over LaSalle, its just a less rigid set of rules, allowing the game to flow, like a sunday league referee that allows the 'play on' after someone has just been stabbed in the box. We like to play a game and enjoy that, not bluster about the rules in minute detail, protractors out and moving troops to the nearest thou on an imperial ruler!! life is to short for that type of game or indeed player, the hobby is supposed to be about having fun .. innit tho? eh?

Shaun

Happy New Year....

well it is my first post since... oh whenever and a day ago...

2009 - managed to limp in with 1005 Points of figures painted...
95 % finished my 28mm AWI project...
95% finished my 10mm Zulu project..

Benched the Ancients 28mm Project...

Started a 10mm Napoloenics project...

Going through the painted figures list i see a variety of distractions and huge month long gaps of non- productivity, all due to the stresses of RealLife... think i will Keep RL off of here, its about the hobby, innit :)

oh I started a new hobby too... Referee training for Roller Derby, skating at 40 years old after 22 on flat feet was interesting, but i am getting there eventually, so that is now three hobby distractions to keep me occupied in what is already a busy schedule. Oh yeah i turned 40 too, and started a diet.. current loss is 10lbs thanks to xmas excesses which brought me back down from nearly 20lbs lost!!! was a good xmas tho :)

Rules we currently use are....

BlackPowder
Impetus
LaSalle
and DiscGame which i play with my 11 year old son ... he has skaven and the ability to roll 6s like he had a pact with the Horned one himself.. well knowing his dad he may well have..

oh midlife crisis alert... getting new tattoo's to grow old distatefully with....

2010... well get a job (currently being made redundant in May)

buy new camera as mine is missing still... maybe the ex,ex took with her when she left...
find new clients that want 25mm figures painted at 2.50£ per figure in monthly bundles of 40
learn to trust 'Bring n Buys' again, or work out how to use Ebay profitably...

breaking new ****** the recession is over***** well thats ok then...

Shaun