2021 Roundup and Future

 

Another fairly productive year for me, lets have a look at the round up of 2021. 

Firs of all - what did I paint. The answer is:

376 Minis of all sizes and scales. So overall, down on 2020 by just over 50 minis. That I think is due to two things - there was a lot of 10mm in 2020 (quicker to paint) and my usual summer hobby slump was very bad this year. Still, that's over a mini a day so I can't complain.

Hobby Bingo wise, that gave me:

30 boxes complete - 300 points

5 lines compete - 250 points

For a grand total of 550 points. Sadly, I didn't complete the grid but that was never very likely due to the fact it contained kitbashed minis and scenery - not something I do very much of. 

Where do we go from here? Well, first off here is the traditional update on the Christmas Haul:

Gives you a very clear idea of what I want to get into next year. I have always wanted to do Lord of the Rings, though these will be for the mass battle "War of the Ring" rather than the skirmish game. I also want to start work on a personal Napoleonic big battle project. The main choice on that will be scale - 10m, 18mm or 28mm? I suspect, in true wargamer style, the answer will end up being all three!

I am terrible at keeping to targets and plans but here is my rough guide to 2022:

- Complete 600 minis (aim high!) 

- Do more of my personal stuff (of last years 376 minis, only 75 were for me)

- Get a games table sorted out finally.

- Buy less than I paint (even if the pile of shame only goes down by a few models, I'll call that a win!)

- Continue with two blog posts a month. 

Not grand ambitions for some, but for me, that's a good guide to work to. We shall see how long it lasts into 2022.

To all my readers - thanks for tagging along on my sometimes sporadic blogging. I hope you all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. 

Sisters Revisited!

 

December is always a tricky hobby month. It's dark and cold outside, which always causes strong hobby mojo for me, but the festive season always does it's very best to get in the way, limiting my painting time. Despite that, progress has been made. 

After some historical stuff in the last post, it was time to get back into Mordheim and the Sisters of Sigmar. My mate Steve supplied the next batch of the commission and over a few nights I finished off another load of violent young ladies:

There was also the classic mercenary Ogre to paint. Now this was somewhat out of my comfort zone (I am not good on big models), but he turned out to be great fun. I varied the skin tone on this guy - I wanted a slightly more weathered, beaten look to him as if he spends a lot of time living outdoors. I think I just about managed it:

There are still a couple more Mordheim bits to do - one final sister and a pit fighter, but they will roll into 2022. 

I shall do a round up post very soon for 2021, so stay tuned! 

Mordheim - Sisters of Silence

 

After a busy autumn desk full of Napoleonics, there was a surprising twist to my next bit of painting as I went back to some seriously classic minis!

My main gaming opponent is, like me, an old GW gamer who has mostly fallen out with the current GW crop of games and minis. However, he still has a fondness for the older games and recently has been starting to build up a Mordheim collection. His first faction was to be Sisters of Sigmar and he asked me to paint them for him

I said yes straight away, even though Mordheim is never something I painted or played. I was glad that I did though as he handed over the fist 8 minis and requested a blue and white scheme. It proved to be a nice break from Napoleonics:

This was the test figure I did. The white took a little bit of experimentation, mainly due to the large flat areas but it came out quite well in the end I thought. I really liked the colour scheme and knocked out the rest over the next few days:

I have to say that these minis took me back to a time when GW was at it's peak, in m opinion at least. The sculpts are clean, the detail is amazing and they were just nice and simple to paint. There was not an overabundance of little bits like emblems, bags, detailing etc that really slows you down with the current GW models. For example, I like the look of the Lumineth but the idea of painting them makes me cold - they look way too complicated. These, however, are not. 

I returned them to Steve and he was so happy he has duly handed me another seven and a mercenary ogre as well, which are currently on the desk. Please note - Steve will be basing them himself. 

Hobby Bingo wise, two of these minis are characters so that ticks off two more boxes. I need to work out the points for them another day, but I do believe I have finally crossed off a whole line! 

Man O' War

 

Whilst I sort out the post for the Irish Brigade, I thought I would take you back to the early 90's for a short spell.  

My wargaming origin story centres firmly around Games Workshop. The short version of the long story is that a friend bought a copy of the September 1990 White Dwarf to school and it got passed around the social area and when I saw it, well, that was that. My hobby was decided there and then and my long wargaming journey began...... 

I have pretty much moved on from GW now, but I have fond memories of some classic games. I recall my mum having to step ove huge games of epic on the kitchen floor whilst making dinner for example, and much fun was had with Necromunda. 

Another game that I never did as much with as I liked due to being restrained by being 13 was Man O War. I sold my copy way back in 2007 for some reason, along with my dwarf fleet, and it's nagged at me ever since. It gradually krept back into thr front of my mind over time, and for the last year I have been casually watching it on eBay, but never quite pulling the trigger. 

Suffice to say, lock down gave me the final kick I needed and I managed to snag a little bundle off of ebay:

I have to say I was happy with the price I paid for this and it's pretty much the whole game. The core box contains a lot of rules with the two expansions adding flyers, monsters and new fleets. I decided to jump right in:

As you can see - plenty of stuff. The books are in good condition as well with little to no wear on them and no rips that I can see. It did take an age to sort through it all, and compare it to the contents list for the three boxes. I was a little nervous as initially it seemed loads were missing. However, I eventually found I was missing templates for just four ships - which I was able to get off ebay on their own for next to nothing. The only individual thing I cannot yet get is the range ruler for elf ships. However, this is essentially a 12 inch rectangle of blue cardboad so nothing a tape measure can't replace. There were also no dice, but after 30 years as a wargamer this is not an issue!

The ships were in a slightly worse state:

In the core box you originally got a dozen galleys - the idea being six were pirates and six Empire. As you can see, the standard of these is differing and three have been converted to chaos galleys by having the ram's heads replaced with skulls. No big deal, they've already had a trip to the freezer so I can remove the masts.

My initial plans are to strip the galleys and paint all twelve as Empire ships - this will give me a really good core to build a fleet around. On ebay you can buy 3D printed replacement masts (already ordered) and I've snagged some extra sails as well. Once these are done I plan on adding ships as and when they pop up at a reasonable price on eBay. My intial two fleets will be Empire and Dwarves. 

I have already really enjoyed this litte nostalgia hit and look forward to charting my fleet build up with you. As a final little reminder of the way things were - anyone remember spending ages looking through catalogue pages like this?

 

What glorious memories! 

Necromancy

It's been a while!

Nearly 2 and a half years as it turns out. Why, in these turbulent times am I revisiting my blog? To be honest, I am really not qute sure as to why, but I have decided make an attempt at blogging my hobby progress once again.

And what has the last two years of hobby bought me? Quite a lot as it happens. I have a hobby room set up and this year is seeing the final push to get it all finalised. I hope to complete it soon. However, it has been sufficiently equipped for me to be quite productive.

I have been painting a lot of stuff for myself and also taking on some commission work. New project wise, I started a Warhammer Fantasy Orc and Goblin army last year and there is a 15mm Roman Army in the works. I am also experimenting with other smaller scales and games.

For now, here are some pictures of stuff I have completed recently.

I recently completed three Perry Miniatures battalions of French Line Infantry for a client. Considering the amount of white in these, I was really pleased in how they turned out. The order also included three mounted colonels:

The same client has commission four War of Spanish Succession Battalions in 28mm. Here is the first all done and based, the rest are coming along nicely.

Finely, at the recent Hammerhead show I picked up three 7TP tanks in 20mm for my Polish. These are from Early War Miniatures and I painted them up straight away. With a 37mm gun they should give the Germans pause for thought.

And finally, a unit of 10 Spider Riders for my Orcs and Goblins. 

What's coming up? Well, there are more Bavarians, some geenskins and some 15mm Romans - and that's just the start. I am aiming for a ratio of one mini a day sp stay tuned. 

Salute 2016 Swag

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had saved some spending money for salute. Without further delay, here is my swag from the day.

Couple of Osprey books, hopefully going to provide some guidance and inspriation for my current early war focus:

 Bit of a spontaneous purchase, some of the new Late Romans from Gripping Beast. Looks like Late Romans will be my second Hail Ceaser army, not that I have started the first yet:

Halftrack mortar carrier for my Bolt Action Germans. I'll be honest, I bougth this more for the model than anything else. 

Footsore Miniatures Late Romans. I bought these just to paint as they look like lovely models, but I guess they'll go with the Gripping Beast stuff:

I've been eyeing up Baccus stuff for years and finally took the plunge. 6mm has a special place in my heart, and here we have 288 British Napoleonic Infantry and around 150 WW2 Germans. All very small and hopefully very quick to paint. 

A 20mm trench system from Ironclad Minatures. Another spontaneous purchse, but lovely terrain and all three feet of very detailed trenchline in solid resin for less than £30. Bargain.

 An armoured car for my 20mm Poles from First to Fight:

Another cheap, random purchase, some 15mm goblins. Bought because I though they looked cool and no other reason. 

A purchse from the excellent Empress Miniatures. Some more Taliban and Insurgents for modern gaming. 

Trees! A little purchase from S&A Scenics to jazz up the gaming table. Hopefully the start of some terrain for the table. 

A far haul over all and will keep me busy for a while. My unpainted mini count has taken a massive hammering, with this pushing me up to +588 unpainted mini's. I best get busy!

Gaming in our Pyjamas

For the whole of her little life, my daughter has had a daddy who plays with toy soldiers. She has known no different, but for most of her life not paid too much attention (she was taught at an early age not to touch my models without asking). However, the last year or so she has been paying more and more attention. She has joined me for some painting (which is just her slapping pink all over some one piece Skaven I got her), and she lost interest in that quite quickly. 

But recently, since her fifth birthday, she has been paying more and more attention to what I do. She is, by her very nauture, an inquisitive little soul, and this applies to toy soldiers just as much as anything else. I've been promising her a little game for a while. And since we were having a lazy pyjama day, it turned out today was the day. 

I decided not to do anything too drastic. I used what fantasy forces I had painted, and gave us each two units of ten troops and one unit of ten archers. The rules were simple:

4+ to move a unit

4+ to hit

5+ saving throw

Biggest unit strikes first (or, in the case of equal size, my daughters unit went first!)

Everyone moves 6", archers can fire 24"

I think it went quite well. She stuck with the game all the way through, and got the hang of the dice rolling quite early on. 

It was a straight forward way to introduce her to the very basic concepts of wargaming. She got the hang of moving stuff, rolling dice, and it's only going to help her counting. We already have another game arranged for next week and it gives me an excuse to buy and paint some more stuff, because what I really need is an excuse to do that! Who knows, she may become that rare thing - a female wargamer! Plus, she will provide a good test bed in how to get the boy into the hobby when he gets a lot older. 

Here are some photos of the highlights. As an aside, this is the first game EVER on my gaming table. Result!

The opposing forces. All my daughters stuff was on movement trays. 

My daughters archer unit takes first blood on the High Elves in the distance. 

Aerial shot of the closing armies. 

My daugher's forces closing on mine.

The first close combat. Victory to Evie's Skaven!

My High Elves take out the last of the opposing archers.

Evie shows no mercy to my last close combat unit.

And the end, victory to Evie!