Time Flies When You're Busy

So I've been AWOL for uhhhh two weeks? or thereabouts. Apologies, mea culpa, etc etc. Life happened, as it often does, and I had a combination of small holidays (a long weekend in Ynys Mon, and another around Abertawe) as well as various Stuff that meant I didn't get any painting done really. On the plus side, I popped into the Games Workshop in Abertawe, and got some paints to help me with the ECW Parliamentarian cavalry commission, which I started to do again. Today I looked at the rather folorn Song of Ice and Fire Here's The Ruckus warband that I'd been doing what seems like years ago, and started working on Ser Geraint Blondel's retainers. These fellows are interesting in that the billmen aren't wearing livery coats, so the only model with the House livery on is the longbowman. I might put some little badges on the billmen though.

The billmen look rather uniform, don't they? I quite like it

I also took some time to use a nice new Contrast paint (Aggaros Dunes) on the second regiment of ECW horse:

24 of the 36 cavalry troopers have had their buff coats and gloves done now

The ECW commission has a deadline (October) so I'm really going to try to focus on them as much as I can over the next few weeks. I'd like to get them done and sent back to the commissioner as soon as I can now that it's cooled down enough to paint again.

In other news I also spent a little money and got some Really Useful Boxes, Warmag sticky-backed ferrous sheet, and several hundred 5x2mm magnets which will be arriving on Saturday - I sense a few pleasant hours gluing magnets to bases in order to safely store an army or two. If this works the way I hope it will, I'll be doing that to everything, painted or not, so that I can have a properly, safely, sensibly, stored collection.

A Man Out Of Space

Sort of, anyway. This is a Thirty Years' War puritan preacher from Warlord Games, repurposed as a preacher of Morr or similar. Some sort of Warhammer Fantasy sort anyway, perfect for games of Mordheim or Guards of Traitors Toll. 

My kingdom for a lightbox. The figure's head is at an odd angle, as he's looking at his book and declaiming from its text, but the quality of photos I can get with my current set up is variable at best...

I like the little golden button on the back of his jacket, and the red hat band. Both signify that despite his attire he isn't quite a puritan from our world... a man out of space, perhaps, if not time

Just the one mini today, and none yesterday, mainly because of the heat and the fact I'm getting ready for Death Unto Darkness event 11: Heretek, which is this weekend. My Sister of Battle, Sister Superior Humility, has had her armour cleaned and the paint touched up, her soft kit has been washed, and she is ready to go and purify the unbelievers with sword and bolt pistol in the name of the Divine Emperor. Much to the dismay of all the other non-Sisters players, I expect. It should be a huge lark and I am extremely looking forwards to it!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 5
2025: 369

Rally The Horse

I spent a bit of time today working on the English Civil War commission, blocking out the horses and starting on the saddlecloths. I need to finish those, then do the leather, trousers, sashes, and details on the standard bearer and musician before whacking them all with Agrax Earthshade and then picking out the metal. I'm hoping to do this by the end of the weekend and then make headway on the other two units.

In other news, I also dug out the last remaining Necrons - five more Immortals and five Pariahs - undercoated them and started painting their metal basecoat. I need to do a bit of work on the barrels of the heavy gauss blasters carried by the Immortals, but I reckon I can get the Immortals and Pariahs finished up tomorrow.

 Also, not this coming weekend but the one after, I'm going to Death Unto Darkness, the 40K LARP, as my Sister of Battle Superior. A friend of mine, M, gave me a 3D-printed bolt pistol a while ago and I've given it some paint to match my chainsword, and a name, because you have to name your wargear.

I'm looking forwards to pointing this at people and yelling "SANCTIC BOLT" at them like the huge nerd I am.

 

Respect Your Elders...

...Or else! I have started working on the Venerable Dreadnought, doing a couple of layers of drybrushed highlights to the armour plate, and getting the gold and bone elements to a point where they can be highlighted and detailed. I suspect much of the work on it will be on the right arm, which has got quite a lot of detail on it in the form of the wolf skin, shield, and so on. I also managed to get the latest ISS Vanguard lander finished as well, which is great! Oh, and I've started on the Parliamentarian cavalry. They're meant to be for Second Newbury (1644), and with three units I'm probably going to try to make them at least slightly resemble some of the regiments of horse that were at that battle - obviously Cromwell's lot, then maybe Waller's and Sir John Norwich's. Not sure how quite yet, a little research required here I think.

A lander - this is not a great photo sadly but the big blue canopy is pretty cool. That said I'm actually tempted to redo it to the gold canopy... I'll see what the commissioner wants

A better photo thankfully. It's a funky little ship!

Looking at this made me realise I'd missed a bit on the other side which I have now fixed. Success?

The reason I might change the colour of the canopy to gold is because the engine glow is blue as well...

The dreadnought! Stompy and angry

Warlord Games' Parliamentarian cavalry - the buff coats and plate are basically the same across both armies and all cavalry regiments! The sashes tended to change colour and I'm going to do these ones with orange sashes

So a lot of work in progress, and one completed mini. Not a bad outcome for the day.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 4
2025: 349

Oops, A Distraction

I don't know if you've noticed but Tuomas Pirinen, him of Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy 6th Edition fame, along with some other creative types has made a ridiculously successful Kickstarter for a new skirmish wargame called TRENCH CRUSADE. Trench Crusade is an alternate universe / alt-history 1914 where the First Crusade accidentally released Hell onto Earth, and so the next thousand years or so have been a long war against Satan's Legions and their various human auxiliaries and soldiers. There's a lot more information out there, I recommend this Goonhammer article for starters.

Anyway, I did some painting on my Redemptionists - blocked out the skin, did the flames apart from the gloss varnish, and started the hair - and then, after picking up a copy of Wargames Illustrated with a sprue of Warlord Games' winter-uniformed Fallschirmjager stuck to the front, decided to rummage in my bits box and make some Heretic Naval Raiders...

They're so close to done. So close. It's painful now

You can see some bits and pieces in the bottom left corner of that photo from the Warlord Games' frame. I opened up the playtest Trench Crusade rules (available on the Facebook group, here) and had a look at what a Heretic Trooper actually has available. As I'm doing Naval Raiders, they get access to sub-machine guns, which is quite nice, so I'm going to do three with SMGs, one with an automatic shotgun, and then two Legionaries with a machine gun and a semi-auto rifle (later to be upgraded to an automatic rifle).

They might look like Germans from the late war, but if you look at their belts you can see some hearts dangling from straps... uh oh! These guys are Heretic Legionaries, with better accuracy than the regular Troopers, and funky padded trousers to help differentiate them. I think that the paint scheme is going to do a lot of work making it clear what they are - strange, deathly pale skin, esoteric runes on their helmets, dark blue naval infantry type uniforms...

Not entirely sure what sort of conversions I could do to make things like an Artillery Witch, or a Heretic Priest, but we'll see. Part of the problem I'm having is that the scale of the Warlord Games' minis is not really compatible with the bulk of my bits box, which is almost entirely Games Workshop's heroic scale stuff. Anyway, that's for another day. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll finally have finished those Redemptionists.

Into the Shadow Deep... and some Strontium Dogs!

On Tuesday, myself, my long-time gaming partner J, and our club friends K and P assembled at P's house to enter the Shadow Deep together. Here is a short and picture-heavy account of Mission 1, Scenarios 1 and 2:

Rangers and Companions:

Daedalus and Nyx the Recruit - J
Petal and Iorek the bloodhound - me
Vicar and Ingvar the Recruit (scribe) - P
Lorcan and Big Mac the Recruit (I think) - K


Mission 1, Scenario 1: The Deserted Village

The rangers and their companions enter the village looking for their missing fellow Ranger, Aventine, only to be surrounded by shambling corpses!

Setup. Rangers in the centre around the trees. Barn to the north, outhouses to the east, dilapidated shed to the south, big house to the west. Undead at the NE, SE, SW and NW points. Giant rats by the barn and the big house. Clues in white, with extra tokens inside the big house and the outhouses. The clue on top of the big house would be moved closer by Lorcan, K's Ranger, before the start of Turn 1.

End Turn 1 - Iorek has eaten his first giant rat and Farmer Fred, found by Petal, has scythed down one of the shambling dead. Vicar and Big Mac are struggling with one of the ex-villagers, while Daedalus and Nyx have their hands full with a giant rat and one of the undead.

End Turn 2 - Nyx has been knocked out by a heavy blow from the undead, Daedalus has been injured by the rat. Fred fails to open the door to the big house (he's lost his keys), while Big Mac has put down two of the walking corpses. The barn has collapsed, and Lorcan has narrowly avoided injury! Ingvar continues to note everything down. Petal and Iorek raced to the aid of Daedalus, with Iorek tearing apart the zombie that took out Nyx.

End Turn 3 - More shamblers have appeared, and Farmer Fred has uncovered a corpse with tracks he recognises inside the big house. Petal casts heal on Daedalus. Vicar is attempting to get into the outhouse to check the clue there, while Daedalus has uncovered the body of Aventine and helped himself to his magic sword...

End Turn 4 - The clue that Big Mac checked turned out to be a corpse that wasn't quite dead yet, and he is badly injured by its surprise attack. More of the villagers stagger, blindly, towards the Rangers. Petal has dispatched one with her bow and arrow, while Lorcan struggles with another.

End Turn 5 - all seems quiet, now, with no more foes (or clues!) on the field (Petal having shot a zombie) - but wait! from the pigsty comes another ex-villager! And from the same directions as before stagger yet more! And a giant rat ambushes Lorcan! (we decided to pull all three remaining events at once to give us more to do)

End Turn 6 - Iorek bounds over to the nearest villager's rotting body and savages it, while Petal adds another zombie to her tally with the bow. Daedalus's magic sword saves his life in combat while Lorcan and Vicar hack the giant rat and a zombie apart.

End Turn 7 - The last zombie villager on the field is beaten back by Daedalus, but he can't quite get the killing blow in...

End Turn 8, End Scenario - ...so Petal races back and finishes it off for him.

Final tally: 3 dead giant rats, 14 dead zombies, Nyx made a full recovery, all six clues uncovered (including Aventine and his sword), and all signs pointed to some deadly creatures in the nearby woods.


Mission 1, Scenario 2: The Infected Woods

Setup - the nesting trees on the north-eastern side of the board, running from north to east. The Rangers and their companions line up from west to south. In front of them are scattered cocoons and the chittering and rustling of giant spiders.

End Turn 1 - A general advance. A zombie lurches out of one web cocoon and attacks Nyx and Daedalus, and another tears and bites at Big Mac and Lorcan. Two giant spiders race towards Vicar.
A survivor, however, is saved from the encasing cocoon by Petal - Wendy the washerwoman.

End Turn 2 - the zombies are put down easily, and Iorek gets a nasty surprise when a giant spider bites him, the venom running through him causing the stout hound some pain.  Vicar and Ingvar finish off the giant spiders in the middle. Petal finds a dead body in the second cocoon she searches.

End Turn 3 - Petal casts heal on Iorek, who finishes off the spider. Wendy moves up to the hound, and ruffles his fur. More spider nests are identified, and Nyx stumbles into a web!

End Turn 4 - Three of the nests are torched, and some treasure is found. The spiders are conspicuous by their absence.Petal finds another corpse.

(No photo!)
End Turn 5, End Scenario - the remaining nests were easily torched and the wood cleansed of the spiders that had caused such devastation to the little village nearby.

Final tally - Iorek ate a giant spider, and the others did for two zombies and four more giant spiders.


Overall jolly fun game. We burned through the two scenarios pretty quick, starting at around 7ish and finishing about 9:30pm. There were a couple of dicey moments but by and large the four rangers and their companions were on top of things throughout, which led us to have a quick discussion about there not being enough enemies. However we agreed to try out the next Mission with no tweaks to the number of enemies as if the dice had come up a bit different we could all have been killed quite quickly indeed.

In painting land, I've been procrastinating on my High Elves by painting some more of the figures from The Good, The Bad, And The Mutie set:

 It's Wulf Sternhammer and the Gronk!

I really like these figures, and am super pleased with how the Gronk turned out.

Painting Points:
Today (well, Tuesday actually): 2
This Week: 3
2019: 27

Strontium Dog!

Either a year ago, or maybe two, my Dad bought Warlord Games' Strontium Dog starter set and gave it to me to build and paint.

I am ashamed to say it has taken me this long to put any paint beyond undercoat onto any of the models (which are superb; they look just like the late, great, Carlos Ezquerra's drawings).

There was no way I was going to start with anyone other than the Strontium Dog, Johnny Alpha himself:

"Number four cartridge!"

Really simple paintjob, given a good solid coat of gloss varnish to really play up the cartoon aspect of it all. Wulf Sternhammer and The Gronk are next up. Oh, and I should probably paint some more Silver Helms as well, but cavalry are booorrriiiiinnnng.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2019: 25