A Strange Day

So,

Today was a strange day, you see Rob and I were going to throw down a game of Bolt Action today. He rolled over here around 10:00 this morning with his stuff and I had cleared the table off to play. But our discussion was not about Bolt Action, but of our up coming Black Powder ACW game. We talked for about an hour or so and it was all about the ACW game. I then told him that I wanted to play Bolt Action, but would rather be playing Black Powder.

It seems that the Bolt Action game is just.. well just okay. Both of us agree that it is a good game, but it has us both feeling like we are missing something from the game. I mean it just doesn't really have anything that sort of grabs you and wants to make you play. I don't know, I want to be excited about this game, but it is just not doing it. Now when I played Battelground, Arc of Fire and some others, those games made me want to play more games. But Bolt Action has me feeling like there should be more, sort of like drinking a flat soda, it taste the same, but is flat and therefore not the same.

So instead of playing a game, we did an early lunch and hit up two local shops, Crusaders Retreat and Imperial Outpost Games. Rob picked up a Wargames Factory box set of Vikings and I did not find anything even though I had money to spend.

Also tonight seems to be a bit strange as well, for the first time in a while I am able to work on a few things for myself instead of for others (the next commission was primed and drying). So I decided to work on a little surprise belated Christmas/Birthday gift for my brother. Way back when, I used to play AD&D and we had a nice small little group of players. Well as a prerequisite for our AD&D games, I had the players buy miniatures of the characters. Well that was a long time ago and I just recently (last year) found the old metal figures. So I decided last year that I would re-paint them up and give them to my brother as a gift. Well I got busy and it never happened.

But about a month ago I figured I should try again to get this little diorama completed for my brothers birthday on June 26th. So here is a little shot of what got done tonight as well as what I have planned. First up is the overall diorama, it is mounted on a Gailforce 9 60mm base and has five figures on it, representing four characters coming down a spiral staircase and one monster ready to pounce on them (as it always seemed to happen in games).

To Boldly Go

First up is the spiral stairway that my friend John over at Plastic Legions did up for me out of Hirst Arts castings. I e-mailed John the week before Adepticon to see if he had anything like this lying around. Luckily for me he did and he packed it up and sent it out to me, thanks John!!

Got to have stairs!

Next up is my buddy Don Gow's character, Dijion Boarhog, a fighter that seemed to carry everything he ever found with him on his character sheet. This model is an old Citadel miniature thief model from the mid 1980's. The model used to be mounted on a old Hex base and once I took it off the base, I noticed just how small the figure was next to the old Ral Partha models. So I cut his boots off at the knee and added to boots from an old Bretonnia archer and pinned them onto the Dijon here, could not have the fighter being smaller than the elves!

Dijon Boarhog with some new shoes!

Next up came my brothers character, Krrf Oakleaf who was a thief.(Krrf is the name of a drug from the story Thieves World). This is an old Ral Partha model from the mid 1980's as well. Krrf did not need anything but to be removed from his cast on metal base. Oh and you will notice that I have already stripped the models some what because the paint jobs were terrible. I should have taken pictures of them before I stripped them, but that was done last year, trust me, they were bad!

Krrf in all his glory

Next up is Pathos the Cleric, This was another character that my buddy Don ran along with Dijon. In the game, he was the healer and pack mule since that was how Don played him. Got extra stuff, give it to Pathos, he did not care, heck his deity was Boccob, known as the Uncaring. It was funny, when Don would ask me (the DM) by having Pathos pray to his god, I would always give him vague answers since he did not care! This model was from the Ral Partha 3 stage pack and I still have the other two figures from the pack.

Pathos, the great uncaring pack mule!

Lastly we have Blackmoor, a dark elf Fighter/Magic user played by my buddy Jeff Ott. This is another old Ral Partha figure and Jeff wanted to play something different, so he asked if he could play a dark elf. I think he started playing this character right before the Forgotten Realms books came out about Drizzt, I can't remember now. This is another one of the Ral Partha 3 stage models as well.

Blackmoor being all magical!

Last figure on this little diorama is an old Grenadier Beholder out of box 2012 Dwellers Below set. It is one of the first monster miniatures I used in a game and looks perfect hiding under the stairs, plus it fit under there as well. I picked this model up in the mid 1980's as well and it is an oldie but a goodie.

I see you!

So there you go, you get to see what I am working on for myself right now, stay tuned as I will be posting pictures up along the way of the painting and finished diorama. I just hope I can get it done by June 26th...

TK

Searching for...A Common Goal?

So,

I have been in a weird mood of late towards my gaming, not sure why just feel like I want to do something more. In fact today, I entertained the idea of taking my game table down and replace it with a Model Railroad layout (something I always wanted to do). But after talking with Robert and thinking about it all day I knew that was a bad idea. But it did make me wonder why I entertained the idea and I may have figured it out.

You see about 16 years ago I was a big time Model Railroader and was part of the Orange County Modular Railroaders, in fact I was President of the club for two years. My goal while I was the President was to improve the quality of our scenery and I was able to inspire most of the club members to join in (which it seems is still a main focus of the group today). There was something about all of us coming together for a common goal.

Prior to leaving Southern California, I started playing Warhammer Fantasy with some friends from work. We would get together and play all day starting at 8:00am and going until 8:00pm. My good friend (Ed Kastler) would host these WFB days and besides playing and having it at his place, he would also BBQ lunch and dinner for us (as well as make Breakfast). There was four of us and we were all working on building our armies together. In fact, one stipulation was that you had to have at least one unit completed each month. Since we all worked together, we all did lunch together and talk was of course about WFB and what we were working on. In fact at lunch we would make trips out to Brookhurst Hobbies to purchase new models (one advantage to having an hour for lunch and only being 15 minutes away from Brookhurst). Good times were had by all and we actually had almost all the armies covered by the time I came out to Phoenix. Once again it was the camaraderie of all of us working on a common goal.

We now move forward a few years and as some know, Gathering in the Desert started and once again I was trying to inspire folks around me to build 600 point armies for Lord of the Rings. I would say it was a success and many folks from around the country participated in the events over a 5 year period. My goal was to run the best looking and best run event that I could do and from what friends have said, I was a huge success. But once again it was all about bringing a community together for a common cause or event. (See a pattern here?)

So to take this back to the top, it is the camaraderie of doing a large project that I am missing or to put it another way, the common goal. So that is what I am looking for, something big to be a part of. I have tried with a few friends to get them involved in some big plans, but it never panned out. Either we all wanted different things, or just had no interest.  I often wonder if I am the only one that feels that way because most of my friends seem to have gamer ADD and bounce off to other projects. I too have a bit of gamer ADD, but not as bad as some I know (you know who you are!).

I look at groups of gamers like the guys over at The Guns of April  and wonder how do they get everyone all on the same page. I know most of these guys (Both Dave's, Jamie, Merle) and they too have some gamer ADD in them, but they have found common ground and have for a second year been able to put on a good game (well the second game will be this weekend at Adepticon). Does it take something like a major event to get people excited and too participate? It happened for Gathering in the Desert, so maybe that is it, I don't know.

One thing I do know is that I am still looking for that next big thing or common goal. I may have found it with ACW Black Powder game that I played in a few months back with friends. It seems that we are going to get together again in May to play another game. While talking to Robert tonight, I decided that I will build a Brigade of Confederates to hopefully play in the game, so in a way, I may have found that common goal. I know that another buddy of mine (Dave C) is going to join in as well as he has been working on some ACW stuff lately.

So to come full circle, that is what has gotten me in a weird mood, it is the lack of a common goal, I believe I may have found it and I hope it inspires other folks. If not, oh well, it will be just Robert and I plugging away at it.

TK

US Paratroops are on the ground!

So, a few months ago, myself, Jerry and Mike set out on a little paint challenge called the Tale of Three, you can see the rules here.

Well, I got the first installment done with now problem but once that was complete, real life got involved and I missed the next two installments. Well a few weeks ago I had a window of time open and I busted out the missed installments as well as the rest of the army!

Yeah, I know, this may be seen as cheating, but when you have a busy paint business that you run, you do not get much time to paint for yourself, so I just slammed it home. Here are the pictures of the finished project.

The Whole Airborne Force!

Stick 1

Stick 2

Stick 3

Stick 4

 Yes, that is 4 sticks (or Squads) of 12men each giving me 48 paratroopers, more than I will ever use but hey, I love these figures!

Bazooka Teams

81mm Mortar

Now, below is a conversion that I did for the para sniper. I had bought a blister of Warlord US Paras, but 2 of the figures that were kneeling had the gun barrels broke off at the end. Well I contacted Warlord and they sent me the replacements. But As I waited, I had an idea to use some of the Plastic Warlord parts to convert a sniper. So I cut of the cast on hands and cut away the gun as close as I could and replaced it with the plastic Sniper rifle and a set of plastic hands from the Warlord US plastic box set. After about an hour of work, this is what I got! I am pretty happy with it and it is a great figure for my paras.

Sniper Team

.30 cal teams

Command Squad

75mm Howitzer

75mm Howitzer

57mm Anti tank gun

57mm again

Back of 57mm

Close up of army

Close up again

Last close up

So there you go, my US Airborne troops are done and now I have an American force for Bolt Action. I am glad to get these figures painted, they have been sitting for about 6 years awaiting paint, so I feel good about finely getting paint on them.

Next up will be some Dark Age stuff (man that stuff is huge!) and I just played my first game of Saga this weekend and had a blast. I will be getting out my Viking Army to rob figures for a Viking warband for Saga, oh heck who am I kidding, I want some new Vikings!!!

TK

Desert Rides

Well,

A quick update tonight since I am doing this during commercials while watching the Walking Dead, I finished up these Plastic Soldier Company 251c about a week ago. These are for my DAK mid war list and so far they have done very well in the last three games of FoW.

 

Next up will be my next two installments of the Bolt Action paint challenge, so stay tuned...

TK

Samaria Bound!

 So,

It looks like I will be headed for Samaria very soon! If you are not familiar with Samaria, well it is the setting for the Brom inspired game called Dark Age Apocalypse by the folks over at Cool Mini or Not. My buddy Dave over at Crusaders Retreat finally talked me into taking a look at this game. So yesterday after visiting with Dave, I came home with the main rulebook.  

 I have to mention the quality of the book, first it is a hard covered book, comes in at 96 pages and is full color all for $19.99, a certain Games company Workshop should take notice and learn from this! The rules are pretty straight forward and the main rulebook has just the rules, not much fluff, just the rules. This nice since you do not have to dig through fluff to find rules. So far, I am liking what I see, I have been wanting a new Sci Fi game, this looks good and could be it.

Besides the Core Rulebook, I also picked up the hefty Forclist book. This book, like the Main rules, is hard back, full color and is 356 pages of coolness!! This book has all the background and descriptions of all the first 5 factions that you can play. I am just digging into this book but I think I may have found the faction that I want to play, the Brood! Basically this faction is a genetically altered caste of humans that have been left to evolve into what they are now. The main reason I want to do this faction, is the cool looking art work and the cool miniatures.

Here are just two of the Brood models that sold me on the game! As a painter, I am really excited about painting these figures and putting my own spin on them.

Along with the minis, I am sure I will be inspired to do some cool terrain. It has been a long time since I felt excited about a game and I am looking forward to journeying to Samaria!

TK

Personal Paint Funk!

So,

It is March 2 and my second installment for the Paint Challenge was due, but I have had a rough month for painting personal items. I had a huge Chaos Nurgle army that I had to paint for Saguaro Painting Service.

Here is the list of items:

28 Plague Marines

20 Cultists

10 Havocs

10 Raptors

6 Oblirators

5 Beasts of Nurgle

10 Chaos Bikes

10 Terminators

2 Helldrakes

1 Forge/Mauler Fiend

1 land Raider

1 Demon Prince

1 Agis Defence line 

 

 

Then father Nurgle decided to pay me a visit and I was down for a week with the Flu, I am just now getting over it Needless to say, I have not had the urge or the time to paint anything for myself. So I guess I will be painting up 500 points this next installment.

Also on a side note, have been very interested in wanting to start a new game, just not sure what I want to do. I know I am done with Games Workshop. I have a few ideas like Westwinds Empire of the Dead or possibly SAGA, my buddy Robert and I were talking about this very thing today. All I do know is that I am enjoying playing Flames of War and that game is dominating the table right now. So we shall see what happens in the next few weeks.

TK

DAK Reinforcements Arrive

Okay sports fan,

It's Supper Bowl Sunday and I could care less about the game today, so I decided to finish up a few tanks for my DAK army for Flames of War. So here is what I got done, first up a few Plastic Soldier Company Pz IV's, which is one of my favorite models. These guys are set up as Pz IV F2, a nice little unit for the DAK.

Plastic Soldier Company Pz IV's

 Next up, is my last PzIIf from Battlefront, this make 5 total tanks for my army. I also have a fondness for Panzer II's and these little guys are great in my DAK force when I am doing a straight up Africa list.

Battlefront Pz IIf

 Last but not least is the dreaded Panzer VI Tiger! You can see this model from my previous post here. I had the chance to play with a Tiger last weekend in a game of FoW, I only used one, but that was enough! I think this model had something like 6 kills in the game and it lasted the whole game. Now I see why FoW German players like this tank! Being a Historical nut, I will only have two in my DAK army collection and will not bust them out all that often, since there were only 6 Tigers in Tunisia. Still it is a cool looking model!

Plastic Soldier Company Pz VI Tiger

 Here is a group shot of all the tanks finished today, all but the the Tiger were half way painted, so really it was pretty quick to finish them up. I really enjoyed getting these units finished up and look forward to getting them onto the table.

Group Shot

 So yesterday DrunkenSamurai and I took the day off from gaming and decided to do a little shopping here in the Valley of the Sun. We hit Game Depot, were I scored a box company box of American Para troopers for 35% off retail price. Then we were off to Empire Games were we looked over there small amount of FoW products. After that we headed over to Crusaders Retreat since DS had never been there. We then ended the trip at Imperial Outpost games were I picked up a box of PSC M4A2 and a Sherman III Objective Marker. With the purchase of the PSC Sherman's, I now have enough vehicles for my British 8th Army Tank force I want to build.

The Next project, British Armour in the Desert!

So there you go, this is what I have/will be working on for this Super Bowl Sunday...

TK

First Installment Done!

Well,

The first installment of our little paint challenge is complete, as you may remember I am doing US Airborne and this first group is all Artizan Design figures. I have to say that these figures were fun to paint, they have just enough detail and they just seem to paint up quickly. So here you go, first up is my HQunit.

Next up is the 10 man squad of veterans, once again all these figures are Artizan Design figures.

Here is a shot of the whole group, all 249 points worth in all their glory!

 So with the first installment done, time to think of the next batch, so here is what I will be painting for this next month.

So I will be painting two more airborne troops with BAR's (36 points), one airborne troop with SMG (16 points), a 60mm light mortar team (46 points), a 75mm Howitzer (60 points) and lastly a 57mm Anti-tank gun (90 points). The 75mm Howitzer and the 57mm Anti-tank gun are from Warlord, the rest are Artizan Designs. So stay tuned until next month on the paint challenge.

So besides my first installment, I have been very painting. I am working on a large Chaos commission over at SPS and in the last week I completed 21 Plague Marines, 10 Obliterators, 20 Chaos Cultists and  Agis Defense line. I also completed these seven stand of American Bazookas for my Flames of War American mid war army (Here you go Robert!)

So there you go, January is in the books and I would say I am off to a good start...

TK