Complete Skaven Unit

Having picked up Dragon Rampant rules just before Christmas, it prompted me to look at the forces I had suitable for fantasy. I have very small forces of Undead, Elves and only ten Skaven. I decided finishing off another 10 Skaven to make a full unit of 20 would give me a suitable size unit to use in my games. I quickly finished off these guys to achieve this:

 When put with the other ten and stuck on a movement tray they look like this:

The important thing to remember with these chaps is that they are base coat of maybe 8 colours and a wash, then basing. So I reckon that unit took maybe 12 hours all in spread out over 6 evenings. In other words I could easily sit down and do a unit in a day if I had nothing else to do with my life, which I think is a pretty healthy speed.

My intention now is to do a few solo trial games of Dragon Rampant to learn the rules and see where things go from there. I suspect, from a quick read of the rules, that I might what to house rule a few things already but they seem a straight forward stater for fantasy games. Just need to get the games table sorted with a few bits of terrain first.

In other hobby related news: I've had my first play around with a light box to get better photos, I have my first ever 20mm World War 2 inbound and I'm mulling over going in on my first kickstarter ever as well. Lots of new stuff to look forward to. 

Epic IG and Sentinels

I have been a little remiss with my blogging of late, nearly three weeks since the last post! Being at work full time was fine, and then being off work with a newborn was fine. However, put the two together and it's getting complicated. It's not so much the lack of time to paint, as I am actually getting quite a lot done, but finding time to blog is a little trickier. I do hope to get a few more posts up before the end of the month though.

Enough of my lamenting. My expansion of my epic armies continues. I have managed to add a second platoon to my mech infantry company, so may I present yellow platoon:

Whilst I was at it and because the paints were out, I added a sentinel squadron to the force as well:

I made a little more effort with the bases to add some character, think it came out quite well. Some ruins and a tree were little added effort, hopefully to make the models pop a little more than they would ordinarily.

There are no more epic in the painting queue at present, so will be a while before I do the rest of the mech infantry company. I also suspect I am short a few chimeras but they are one of the more plentiful epic models on ebay so it's not big deal.

I have a couple more posts due this week and I am currently working on some more Napoleonic British, as well as mulling over both 15mm and 20mm World War 2, so plenty to come.

A Games Room Re-born

There's a bit of a story to my games room:

About 6 years ago I was idly musing about getting a games table in the garage. Being a garage, it was of course used to store everything bar a car. At the time it was a simple concrete floor, breeze block wall affair. I mentioned in passing to my dad (who is a DIY guru) if fastening some cheap chipboard to the walls would cut down on dust. I had memories of playing in my parents bare brick loft as a kid and everything was dusty as hell. 

Now my dad can be pretty damn cool, and he came through big time. Without asking he offered to plasterboard the garage, carpet it and make it water proof. All out of his pocket. Once it was done, all I had to do was paint it. It wasn't a full conversion, there is still a garage door and no heatin, but it's more than most. 

The gaming table was a simple £20 purchase off eBay with a sheet of MDF on top. I then textured it, and started making terrain. 

However, somehow, it got side tracked. I could never get a game in and didn't have enough stuff to game alone (a handy way of learning rules), so it languished unused. And being a garage it kept getting filled up with detritus from life. Several times I cleared it out and resolved to use it but never got around to it. 

But time is going to be different. I've cleared it again over the last week, and redone the layout to hopefully make it easier to use. This is where it stands now:

There's still stuff to do. There are a few bags need to go to the car boot, and a pile of stuff taking up room that needs to go to the shed, which itself needs a clear out when the back garden stops being a swamp. But I can now access the table. I need a load more terrain, but I think I am well on my way to using the room for a game, which will tick off one of my targets of 2016.

Long term, if I add some shelves to clear some floor space, and move over to collapsible tables, I will have an even more flexible games room. If I have measured up right the room could possibly take a 5' by 12' table, though it would be a little tight and I wouldn't be able to leave the tables up permanently but it could be doable for big games. All of this is long term though. For more at least, I have a 6' x 4' I can use, which is a big positive. 

Just need some recommendations for good terrain please? 

2015 Review, A Look Ahead to 2016

The last year has been quite a good one for me. I'll come to the hobby side in a minute, but generally; my daughter has started school and is thriving, I passed a promotion exam at work, and of course, I have a new son! All good.

Hobby wise has also been very good to me. I end the year with two Bolt Action armies on the go (one a pretty decent size), and dents made in several other projects. I have also started to try different games, made some good friends and got started in some other projects.

Painting wise, I decided to score myself using the Analogue Hobbbys scoring system. Because I am quite sad, I track what I paint and here is what I managed over the year:

28mm Infantry: 113 @ 5 pts each
28mm Vehicles: 4 @ 15pts each
6mm Infantry: 30 @ 0.5 pts each.

Grand total:
640pts

I like to think that is not too bad a year for me. As a slow painter, I think that is quite good. Certainly, it took me nearly 6 years to paint 200 Imperial Guard, so having done over 100 28mm minis this year is quite a feat. Overall I am pleased with progress made. 

So what will 2016 bring?

Too many projects no doubt! Here are a list of things I have been thinking about in the past few days to aim for. Some are quite specific, some more general:


- In terms of points using the above scoring system, I am going to aim for over 1000 points of painted minis.

- To complete at least two full 28mm Napoleonic battalions (so that's 48 miniatures done.)

- I have my shelves of doom (full of unpainted minis, mainly dead projects that I refuse to sell) in my painting, taunting me from the corner. The total currently stands at 93 minis, so I shall aim to reduce this to under 60 miniatures by years end.

- General 28mm wise, I want to progress my two Bolt Actions armies, and move into at least one Ancients force alongside my napoleonics. I'd like at least two complete units for this ancients project.

- I want to start to gather 20mm forces for battlegroup games. No real targets on this, just want to see me making siginificant progress here.

- 6mm wise I have two rough targets. In Epic terms, to buy no more until what I have outstanding is small enough to fit in to one box. Second, to move into historical 6mm. I know it's not for everyone, but it's a scale I have always had a soft spot for. It should also be fairly quick and easy to get armies together.

- Finally, bring my gaming table into action that I have in the garage. I've had this a few years and still not used it.


You can see I have set myself very few "hard targets" as I find these demotivating and unrealistic. I shall review where I am at the halfway point in the year, but I think it's a good framework to work to. In all honesty I will get distracted by something soon and it will all fall apart.

So here's to a great 2016. May your dice roll 6's and your painting hand be steady.

Christmas 2015

Little bit late, due to family festivites, drinking and general merriment but here is my Christmas haul.

First up I have some Bolt Action reinforcements:

For the Germans we have some artillery (a 10.5cm gun no less), a Flakvierling and a heavy mortar whilst the Brits get a 25 pounder gun.

For my naps I got a box set of Perry Miniatures Brits. This should give me enough to field three batalions if I use the leftover Warlord guys and get some more command minis:

Next up was these:

That should give me a good start to get a Dacian army going for Hail Caeser. Going to need a lot more though.

The big one:

Been wanting this for a while, ever since I had a couple of games a while ago. Was great fun and might even be a game I can get the wife involved in!

Now this little gift seems insignificant:

It's a chargable daylight lamp. It should allow me to set up a collapsible paint station down stairs. These means I can paint more often as well as keeping the wife company. Win! 

The only down side to all these gifts is I now have an unapinted mini pile bigger than ever before - going to be busy.

Free Partizan Mini

Painted up this guy this guy a few days ago. It was the free miniature that came with my visit to Partizan. I think that it is supposed to be a local actor (who's name escapes me), portraying Lawrence of Arabia. However, I painted it up to represent a second world war officer as I thought it would just about be suitable for a objective in games of Bolt Action. I imagine it being some old officer who's gone of on a hair brained one man mission behind German lines to relive his glory days and now needs rescuing.

As an aside, lovely little mini to paint, very well sculpted and I enjoyed putting in a little more effort than normal.

First Completed British Napoleonics

I have now managed to finish the first 8 of my British Napoleonics. I got some pretty positive feedback from a Black Powder facebook group on the first test mini, and I am reasonably pleased with how they have come out. I have gone with basing 4 each on a 4x4 base. My normal size infantry battalions will be 24 men, which will give me 6 bases per batallion. Since I like to batch paint between 5-10 models at the same time, I divided them into 8 men groups, meaning three batches per battalion.

Enough of a waffle from me, here's some pictures.

First company featuring a pioneer. 

Second company, with an NCO.

And various views of the two companies together.

Overall, I am quite pleased with how these turned out. The facings are green as these guys will be the 45th Foot, a Nottinghashire regiment. True, the trousers should be white for the Penninsular war, but I found grey quicker and easier to do, so I went with them. However, my main aim was quality and speed, both of which I think I achieved. I reckon these took ten hours, including basing. That was unfortunatley spread over about 2 weeks, but if I can ever get some solid hobby time these will be quick enough to churn out. I suspect I can get the total time down to an average of 1 hour per man.

When I get back around to more of these, it will be two more companies featuring the flank elements as well.