The Last Words-Only Post, If I Have Anything To Say About It

I just wanted to make a little post detailing my current wargaming plans for the remainder of this year.

Currently, my wargames stuff is spread between my parents' house and mine. I don't have anything like the storage space that I want for it all, so what I'm aiming to do is rationalise what I have, gather it all together in one place, and organise it properly. Off the top of my head, I have the following armies, either started or half-way complete. I don't really have any 'complete' armies because I'm a classic Wargaming Butterfly...

1:whatever:
Battlefleet Gothic: Imperial Navy and Chaos fleets

6mm:
Epic Imperial Guard, Orks and Space Marines plus Titans and flyers
Battletech

15mm:
AK-47 Republic armies (Dictatorship, Popular Front, Super-power Backed, and White Supremacist)
Vietnam War US infantry company (1 figure = 1 man) with support

20mm:
WWII 1940 British
Russian Civil War Bolsheviks
Vietnam War US Infantry platoon

25-30mm:
Historical: Pirates! Just one crew, though
Historical: Chinese Warlord army
(A)historical: VBCW - BUF, reds, Skye Battalion
Moderns: Mogadishu
Moderns: Congo Simba Revolt
SF: Foxglove's Fighting Band - desert-based mechanised mercenaries (company)
SF: Force Generica (platoon)
SF: Women's Battalion of Death
SF: EuroFed Police and Rioters
SF: Viridians and a Triad gang for Urban War
SF: Gangs of Mega-City One gangs
40K: Imperial Guard (lots), Space Marines (three kinds), Chaos (LatD and Marines), Inquisition, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Orks (lots), Tau, Necrons, Tyranids.
Gorkamorka: Grots, Gorkers and Morkers
Necromunda: Escher, Goliath, Orlock and Ratskins, plus Hired Guns galore
Mordheim: Vampires, Skaven and Mercenaries
WFB: Empire (Wissenland), Empire (Solland), Vampire Counts, Bretonnians, Dwarfs, Dark Elves, Wood Elves
LotR: Haradrim, Gondor (Last Alliance) and those ghosties that are bad.

1:35 and 54mm:
Inquisitor warbands (two)
Operation Squad: Germans, with Russians on the way

Which is a conservative estimate. That's a minimum of about 64 armies, not counting all the 1-5 model starts for some armies (like my Savage Orc Shaman, Skaven Grey Seer, or Nova Castellan command squad) or any of the random crap I have like my 1:48 figures or the two 1:200 US carrier aircraft.

Even if we just narrow it down to rules sets, I have:
Ak47 Republic, Operation Squad, Stargrunt II, DropWing, LotR: Return of the King, WFB 6th Edition, 40K 4th edition (and 2nd), Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Battlefleet Gothic, Epic 40K, and a good few others.

So what I am aiming to do is sell off the stuff I don't need or want. A shortlist of that includes, but is not limited to:

Some of my Imperial Guard,
My 15mm Vietnam stuff,
My BattleTech,
My Pirates,
Some of my Inquisitor 54mm stuff.

More will probably go on the 'sell' pile as and when I find it. I am aiming to stop being a butterfly by the end of the year, and instead stick firmly to my PLAN-PURCHASE-PAINT concept developed earlier on this blog. As part of that, from now on I will not post any updates unless I have pictures of stuff I've painted to show you.

Plans, Plots, and Moving House

Although I have no newly painted figures to show you, I do have some interesting weblinks and more mad and crazy schemes for you all.

First of all, I am moving house from London to Warwick. This will put me closer to my parents' place (and with it all my toy soldiers) and various model shops (two independent and one GW). This is a good thing! However, it does mean that until we've moved and settled in, painting time will be limited.

Secondly, I've decided on a couple of new projects. These are as follows:

Afghanistan 2006

Using Ambush Alley Games' Ambush Alley: Force on Force rules, I intend to wargame the first year's fighting in Helmand province between the 3 PARA battlegroup and the Taliban/anti-government elements that gave the lie to John "not one shot fired" Reid. For figures, I intend to use a mix of Britannia Miniatures and Liberation Miniatures.

Inspiration and information so far have come from the excellent books A Million Bullets, 3 PARA, and 3 Commando, as well as countless newspaper and media reports.

It's likely that as I read more on the subject (books like The Junior Officer's Reading Club and Leo Docherty's Desert of Death together with Lt. Col Stuart Tootal's account of the 2006 fighting are on my reading list) I will expand the project to cover the entire period 2006-current. And, if I am successful in my attempt to get into the Royal Armoured Corps as a Troop Commander, who knows? I may be able to represent myself on the wargames table.

The Matriarchy Guard:

For a long time now I've been creating an entire sector of space for the 40K universe in my head. This sector was originally known as the Rigel Sector, but after a Tyranid invasion it was renamed. Anyway, one of the planets - Paradiso - is a paradise world - pristine, barely polluted, full of holiday resorts for high-ranking functionaries and nobility from across the sector, that sort of thing. It's also a matriarchy, and for some time now I've wanted to make two armies for it - one Planetary Defence Force platoon for when I play Dark Heresy or Inquisitor 28 there, and one for standard games of Warhammer 40,000.

Now I have the figures to do both:

Planetary Defence Force from Hinterland Miniatures, and Imperial Guard from Shadowforge Miniatures. The Hinterland figures are perfect for Palace Guard types, with ceremonial uniforms and weapons, while the Shadowforge Politburo Worker Battalion will make cracking Imperial Guard.

There are other uses for some of the Shadowforge Sci-Fi range - the Marine Special Ops will mix in nicely with my Jungle Fighting Imperial Guard, while the Gangers, Bounty Hunters and Scavangers will go brilliantly in both Necromunda and Gangs of Mega-City One.

So there you have it - one move and two new projects. Madness, eh? Hopefully I'll be able to post some more painted pics tomorrow.

Action Plan 2010

Today I formulated my finalised plan of purchases and painting for 2010, and it runs as follows:

January - Finish Bloody Band Ratskins and BUF
February - Finish Pantokrator's Fallen Men (Chaos Space Marine army)
March - Buy Simple Green and begin the Parvassian 9th Dragoons (Imperial Guard army)
April - Parvassians Cont. SALUTE 2010 - purchase remaining Greater Israel Army from GZG, purchase Cyclops remote demolition vehicle from Forgeworld, purchase remaining Skye Battalion, Anarchists and MacDonald Brigade troops.
May - Finish Parvassians.
June - Purchase part of Dark Eldar army, begin painting Eldar for my wife's army
July - Purchase part of Eldar and Dark Eldar armies, paint Eldar
August - Purchase part of Eldar and Dark Eldar armies, paint Eldar
September - Purchase part of Eldar and Dark Eldar armies, paint Eldar
October - Purchase part of Eldar and Dark Eldar armies, paint Eldar
November - Purchase part of Eldar and Dark Eldar armies, finish Eldar (?)
December - Paint Salute! acquisitions.

If all goes well I'll end the year having the following fully painted forces and armies:

Pantokrator's Fallen Men - 1,500 point 40K Chaos Space Marines
Parvassian 9th Dragoons - 1,500 point 40K Imperial Guard Armageddon Steel Legion
Biel-Tan Swordwind - 1,500 point 40K Eldar aspect warrior army
BUF force - VBCW, Police Action
Greater Israel Army Platoon - Space 2200 (Stargrunt II)
Skye Battalion platoon - VBCW
MacDonald Brigade platoon - VBCW

If I get the chance I'll continue to work on my Necromunda as well, ideally one figure a week throughout the year.

Here's to the adventure ahead! I hope you enjoy the ride and the painting with me. Please feel free to comment and leave (constructive) criticism.

Deja Vu...

Right, so I found Gary Bovver, which is great, because I'm really proud of his tattoos...

...and I took a load of photos of him and the rest of the Automatics...

...only now I can't find either the original information cable or the NEW information cable.

Arrrrgh!!

In less toy soldier oriented news, I took my wife and son to see Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Brian Blessed was playing Abanazar the eeeevil wizard (without a throat mike!) and Peter O'Grady played the Djinn. It was ace! My son was a bit upset by the loud noises at first but as I took him out he started to get curious, and I brought him back in. 15 minutes in and he was sat on my wife's lap (and later mine) looking intently at the action and taking everything in. By the end he was really happy and excited about it all.

Fantastic night out, fantastic production, and my first pantomime since Pirates of Penzance (if it is a panto) many many years ago.

Now, in a return to toy soldiers, Jellicoe and I are planning a Warhammer 40K 'Apocalypse' game in Feburary. So I'll be painting up some Chaos Space Marines for that in a (probably futile) attempt to get my contribution to the Forces of Darkness fully painted. I counted them - 'just' 23 models to paint (6 Veterans, 4 Icon Bearers, 3 Bikers, 5 half-painted Marines and 5 half-painted Terminators). At the same time I'm going to be tackling some more Necromunda stuff - probably Ratskins or Hired Guns for the moment. Ideally I'd like to have all my Necromunda models painted by Salute! 2010.

In terms of Unpainted Mountain projects, I intend to complete one whole 40K Guard Army this year - my Parvassian Dragoons (Armageddon Steel Legion models), a 1,500pt army which only needs a Forgeworld Cyclops demolition vehicle to complete. They'll be painted up in greys with snow bases, and I intend to convert the Ratlings to have both gas mask bags and boots, as I don't think even Hobbits in Space would like to walk around in arctic conditions without boots.

So: for 2010:

1) The Pantokrator's Fallen Men - 40K Chaos Space Marines
2) Necromunda: Ratskins, Hired Guns, Orlocks, 'spare' Escher and Goliaths
3) Parvassian 9th Dragoons - 40K Imperial Guard
4) Very British Civil War stuff

That should take me through into the summer at least, after which I'll (re)consider where I am and see what I think needs doing next. Now I'm going back to sleep and then I'm going to hunt down the bloody information cables so I can show you the Automatics.