New recruit!

Only real update is that I am working on the Dreadfleet ships currently.. Well, not only me but my six year old son as well.

He's been begging me sing I got the "pirate game" to let him help me. So, I am letting him put the base coats on the islands, the ship water bases, and the turn tokens. He's loving the chance to finally help daddy with miniatures.

Gonna try to teach him dry brushing soon!

I've been working on the Black Kraken but don't have any pics. Hopefully have time to finish it by the this weekend.

Dystopian Wars Battle Report 1

Well this evening I played my first game of Dystopian Wars. Before I go any further I want to state that this was a learning experience. I had roughly read the rules before this game and my opponent, Shawn, had not read the rules at all. With that said, there are some things we purposely left out (so we could learn the basics), some things that we forgot or did not do correctly, and some things that we just didn't know.

The report:

We both used the starting fleets that are in the battle box, minus the tiny flyers. I with my Prussians and he with his Empire of the Blazing Sun.



Seeing as how Shawn didn't know anything, I went over a couple of basics and then he gave initiative to me so that he could learn. I forgot that I even brought a camera until after our first few activations so I didn't get any pics of table layout or deployment.

The first couple of activations brought my fleet sort of forward and toward the center. I also had decided early on that I was not really worried about winning or losing but learning so I threw tactics to the wind and played.

My Frigates, Cruisers, and Battleship had taken out two frigates of one squadron and done one HP to the final Frigate.


His Frigates moved up and unloaded on my cruisers and scored a critical hit (Hard Pounding - -2HP and -2 AP). He moved his cruisers up and bombers.

Next activations had me moving my bombers (not pictured to the right) which didn't do much the entire game.

He moved up his Battleship and sank my damaged Cruiser.

My next learning experience was for Boarding. My Frigates went full speed ahead to seize the enemy Frigate. Here's a close up of the the aftermath of the boarding action. We were really unsure how to mark what AP went back to there home vessel so we put markers to show how much AP were left.

You'll also notice the paint job on the two Frigates. These are my two test models. I think that I like the colors all except the Decking. So, my quandary, which one looks best. They are painted the exact same except for the decking. Which do you prefer?

Shawn then swooped his Frigates around to get broadsides on both my Frigates and Cruisers. One of my Cruiser's took 2 HP.

My Frigates moved in to take out the incoming threat. Sank two of them and the third one broke. I'm still unsure what, how, and why's of the Bravery and Break Tests.

My Frigates surged forward and did 1 HP damage to the EotBS Battleship.

He moved his third squadron of Frigates (upper right) into the battle.

I moved my Bomber, still unseen in the pics and still ineffective (by my errors) in the battle).

Shawn moved his Cruiser's forward, fired rockets into the hull of my Battleship doing 1HP of damage my Battleship returned fire causing the same damage to one Cruiser.

He moved his bombers forward and fired rockets from each. One of them sank one of my Frigates and the other did another 1HP to my Battleship.

I was attempting to move my Cruiser's forward threading those two islands. Don't know why, jsut thought i would gain cover or something.

Probably skipped a few activations worth of pictures as his Battleship is moved, I'm missing a few frigates, my Battleship has taken another 1HP of damage, and my cruiser's have moved again.

And here was the mess in the middle of the board at the end of the battle. I had attempted to Board his Battlehips with mine while his bombers obliterated my fleet, scoring 12 hits on my Battleship. Two more Critical Hits were scored Rudder and  Weapons.

All in all, I am impressed with the game. I had a great game, I learned a lot, and I can't wait to play again. I'll put more in depth comments about game play, tactics, and stuff some other day when I'm not so tired.

Oh, and the Empire of the Blazing Sun sailed away with the victory, 410 - 285 (or something like that).

Curse of Zandri pt 1

I finished the Curse of Zandri ship for Dreadfleet last night. I took some pics this afternoon but I don't like them so I'll have to take some more pics once I have a bit more time.

The process:


I put the model completely together except for attaching it to the base. Primed the model in white due to not having any other primer colors at the moment. It was raining and I didn't feel like going out to get some.

Ushabti and Warsphinx thing - Vallejo Black base coat. Edges and marbled with GW Dark Angels Green. Highlighted the Marble effects and edges with Hawk Turquoise. Trim and Weapons: Mix of 1:1 Vallejo Gold and Privateer Press Umbral Umber. Then built up highlights to straight Vallejo Gold. GW Brown Ink was applied to the inlay and markings on weapons then picked out with Vallejo Gold.

Deck and Oars: Privateer Press Bloodstone.Washed them with GW Devlan Mud then dry brushed with PP Bloodstone.

Gold: Mix of 1:1 Vallejo Gold and Privateer Press Umbral Umber. Then built up highlights to straight Vallejo Gold.

Hull: Base coat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand. Wash of GW Devlan Mud.

Red and Blue Banding: blue was painted with Vallejo Prussian Blue and highlighted with GW Ice Blue. The red is GW Mechrite Red with a highlight of GW Macharius Solar Orange.

Weapons on Deck: Catapults Vallejo Iraqi Sand with wash of Devlan Mud. Bolt Thrower things. GW Chainmail washed in GW Badab Black

Water: Basecoat of  Vallejo Prussian Blue. Dry-brushed with GW Enchanted Blue, then with Ice Blue. Then a heavy wash of 1:1 of GW Thrakka Green wash and GW Badab Black wash. After wash dried painted Vallejo White on the wave crests. Bones and skulls were painted a basecoat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand and then highlighted with Vallejo White.

I tihnk that's about it. If I remember anything else. I'll post it when I repost pics.

Ships Ahoy!

This update is for Dystopian Wars. A miniature game set in a steam punk alternate earth in 1871created by Spartan Games.

My painting project for this semi-new and exciting game is the Prussian Naval Battle Box for a friend.

The box comes with

• 1 - Emperor Class Battleship
• 3 - Reiver Class Cruisers
• 9 - Arninius Class Frigates
• 2 - Geier Class Bombers
• 10 - Tiny Flyer Tokens
• Stat cards (called FIG's I think) for each Class of models, except for the Tiny Flyers.
• All the tokens and templates you need for the game.

I am really shocked at these models. 1) for the size of the models. I thought they were smaller than they are. 2) The detail in these models are amazing!

After un-boxing, removed mold lines, and putting an undercoat of grey here they are.

I'm still up in the air as to some of the things I want to do with this fleet.

1. I want to separate the Tiny Flyers from their tokens and have them look like they are flying. But I'm not sure how to go about it yet.
2. I also want to magnetize the turrets. Or at least one of them on the Battleship.
3. and I'm still unsure of the exact color's I'm going to paint the fleet.

Well till next time...Sail away, sail away, sail away!

Dreadfleet

I've put the Thundertusk on hold, sort of. I'm painting it sloooooowly so that I can do a great job.So, instead I am painting up the Dreadfleet. game, put out by Games Workshop. Not going to go into a lot of details but it's a sea faring pirate game set in the Warhammer world. The game play is fun, fairly easy, and has lots of room for strategy.




I'm also using this game to get my 6 year old into miniature painting and modeling. He's been so excited to put models together, paint them, and play the game.

We've (my son and I) unboxed the game, put all the models together, put an undercoat on some of them. The ships that need to be painted before assembly have just been snapped together and not glued. Also, we've not put the sails on any of the ships wanting to paint them seperately and put them on the ships after they are painted.

To see which one I painted first I took the ship cards (each ship has it's own stat card) shuffled them, and drew one. So, the Curse of Zandri is my first ship. Taken from GW website:

Even by the standards of the Undead fleets of Nehekhara, King Amanhotep's flagship the Curse of Zandri is a strange and wondrous craft. It is propelled through the waters by hundreds of skeleton oarsmen, undying soldiers whose strength is drawn from the tides of magic so that they will never tire in their task. Along the flanks of the Curse are massive statues of the Nehekharan gods, given unlife in order to hasten the demise of their prey. Gigantic Screaming Skull Catapults line its decks, ready to rain shreiking death onto the decks of Amanhotep's enemies, and eight-foot stakes of sharpened dragonbone shoot out from the triangular apertures in its flanks as the Curse draws near to its prey.

So here's my progress so far on this ship:

More to come soon enough.

Newest project

I recently purchased the new, pretty, Ogre Kingdom Thundertusk/Stonehorn kit. I've decided to build it as a Thundertusk. My goal is to paint it up really nice-like and sell it on Ebay or Ogre Kingdom player friend of mine.

Here's a WiP pic.

Long way to go!

Back

It's been a hectic month or two with starting a new job and starting a Master's degree Program and trying to be a good dad and husband and all that other stuff that comes with life. This doesn't mean I haven't been playing, painting, or modeling but it does mean that I haven't made time to post anything.

In the playing realm, I've been involved in an escalation league for Warhammer Fantasy. I'm currently in 1st place with my Skaven. I'll post a battle report or 2 soon.

In the painting realm, I am currently working on a friends Gnoblars for him. After painting Ogres he just doesn't have the patience to paint the tiny little guys that are Gnoblars. So, he's hired me to do them.

In the modeling realm....nada!

I feel like I am getting burnt out on Warhammer so I am trying to figure out what to do next. I've been tossing the idea of Malifaux or 40k. I have plenty of both to work on. I'll probably lean more towards Malifaux because it's not a GW product and I really like the models I have. AND because Puppet Wars is coming soon.

Letter to GW

Not my letter of course, but a letter none the less

Temptation

Games Workshop are once again tempting me with Dark Eldar goodness. Why are they doing this to me now!?! 

 Curse you GW!

Delays

Over the last few weeks I've started a new job (from not having one for the last 2 and half years) and started a Master's degree program. Needless to say I am a bit overwhelmed and can't really concentrate on little soldiers at the moment. But last night my wife, being the good counselor that she is, is ordering me to take 30 minutes out of my day for me. So, that 30 minutes will most likely be miniature painting or building or something. I spent last night's thirty minutes cleaning off my desk!

As a side note, I have finally received the correct Vallejo colors to continue my US Army in ACU.  Also, due to some people asking how I did the ACU I'll be posting a Tutorial, sometime. I also received a Space Wolf Pack that I can work on my White Howlers, my Space Wolves successor chapter

And because I don't like posting something without a picture of miniatures here are pics of my Screaming Bell. Pics are a bit blurry but you can still tell what it is.

Until Next time!

Savannah and Dark Eldar goodness

Well, last week, for our 10 year anniversary, I took my wife on a surprise trip to Savannah for a get away. Just us, no kids. We've always wanted to go but never really did. We had a blast. We...

1. Ate some awesome seafood at Tubby's Tank House and a few other local establishments.
2. Visited Tybee Island.
3. Did the Midnight Zombie Ghost Walk with Blue Orb Tours. It was great! Tobias was an incredible tour guide.
4. Visited some amazing sites and saw some amazing architecture

But since this is a blog about miniature wargaming I guess I'll get to that..


I've been on vacation for a few days and when I get back I see this...

Why the hell am I not collecting Dark Eldar again?!? This is BADASS! I say" again" because when they were first introduced as an army many many moons ago, I collected them. But they didn't release any really cool models at the start. I had gotten out of my Warhammer 40k phase before they did.

I just might have to ponder getting this new army!

ACU (digital camo) pt 2

Here is my second attempt at Digital Camo or ACU. This one is much better than my first attempt but not quite as good as I wanted. For some reason, when I painted the first model forgot how to paint or something. This one looks much better.



He is nearly finished. I need to add some highlights to his rifle and goggles. Maybe another layer of skin tone and some straps. I'm undecided on his back pack and pouches. I've seen some pics where the pouches are desert colors, and some where they are ACU. So, I don't know.

Edit: I wanted to ad some real life examples that I'm using as reference.

I am about to go on an anniversary trip so I won't be able to finish him or work on the others in the unit until I get back.

New methods

I've stripped the paint off those Caesar Modern US Army figures. Since my last attempt to paint them in ACU failed miserably (in my opinion), I've searched high and low for an idea of how to paint ACU on such a small scale. Eventually, I found a method I am going to use and see if it works on this scale.The figures below are 28mm where mine are closer to 20mm.

These are Empress Miniatures US Army miniatures painted by jas as seen on the Ambush Alley Games Forums here

Also, I have the rough shape of four buildings now. I'm not posting any pics until I get all the ones I'm building to a stage that I think is worthy of pictures. Probably right before I start applying the texture to the walls. We'll see.

Tale of the Fantasy Painter

My entry for this months Tale of the Fantasy Painter is a unit of 6 Plague Censer Bearers and a unit of 26 Plague Monks. I'm not completely finished with these units.

I still need to add some minor details like color for sores, puss, and runny noses. I also need to put writing on banners and whatever those other guys are carrying.

PLANNED FOR THIS MONTH: Either HPA or Stormvermin. The HPA is scratch built but I'm not finished building it. The Stormvermin are bare plastic. hmmmm decisions.

Building buildings pt 1

I've been building terrain for years. Most of my creations have been thrown away or given away. The biggest loss of terrain came when I sold my store. With it went all  but my most essential terrai, few hills, few forrests, few buildings. With me working on a new game, based in a modern setting, I need terrain for it so here I go.


The first of my Middle Eastern Style buildings was started about a week ago. But it is just a square foam board building, nothing that exciting and quite boring. So, I started working my second, more architecturally challenging, one yesterday. I'm using the same techniques and materials that can be found all over the web for this style of miniature architecture; Foam board, Xacto knife, Steel ruler, Spackle, blah lbah blah. As I get further along I may ad some other items and materials as needed.

Here is the initial pic of my second structure. It is just taped together to see how it all will fit together and how it looks. It will "square up" once I solidify it with glue and put it on a base. I still need to cut out some windows and other openings. Oh and in looking at the picture, I should have put a miniature on the roof or behind the wall or something to show scale. It is about 20mm or 1:72 scale.

Different sort of test!

Well 2 things occurred tonight/today

1. Osama Bin Laden has been killed. HOORAY!
2. I've decided to scrap that last model and paint scheme. It was pretty crappy and not up to my usual standard. I'll start on a new one tomorrow.

Night!

US ARMY ACU Painting Test

I finally sat down and put a brush to the Caesar Modern US Army figures. I decided to go with the ACU pattern for their camoflage. It's "technically" their current pattern but it's
getting phased out to make way for Multicam.

I think that the pattern is too dark for ACU and the gloves are too green. I might try another figure tomorrow with a little shade lighter.

Upcoming League

This Tuesday (5/3) is the start of a Warhammer Fantasy Escalation  League at one of the local game stores. While I have some issues with they way they are approaching the League I will participate and utilize their league to play some Warhammer Fantasy battles (which is a rare commodity in this day and age).

Anyway, I've been contemplating what army I am going to play in the League and have finally settled on Skaven. Simply because I have more of them painted than any other army I have at the moment. After even more deliberation I've settled on a list...



750 Pts - Skaven Roster
Warlord (1#, 98 pts)
1 Warlord, 98 pts (General; Hand Weapon; Halberd; Heavy Armour)
1 Rat Hound Bodyguard

Chieftain (1#, 72 pts)
1 Chieftain (Battle Standard Bearer), 72 pts (Hand Weapon; Halberd; Heavy Armour; Battle Standard
Bearer)

Stormvermin (26#, 270 pts)
24 Stormvermin, 270 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Halberd; Heavy Armour)
1 Fangleader (Hand Weapon; Halberd; Heavy Armour)
1 Lichebone Pennant


Skavenslaves (40#, 82 pts)
40 Skavenslaves, 82 pts (Musician Mus; Hand Weapon)

Giant Rats (21#, 78 pts)
18 Giant Rats, 78 pts
3 Packmaster (Hand Weapon; Whip; Light Armour)


1 Doom-Flayer Weapon Team (Doom-Flayer; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour)
Doomwheel (1#, 150 pts)
1 Doomwheel, 150 pts (Causes Terror; Immune to Psychology; Large Target)
1 Crew (Warlock & Rats)

750 points and 90 models! I love an army of multitudes of Skaven.

And a pic of my Doomwheel, just because.

Force on Force update,

I've been reading the rulebook. I can't seem to find that much time to read. but what I've ingested so far I really like the game. The rules seem fluid and relatively easy to learn. I'll go more into the rules and stuff once I've actually played a game.

I've primed my squad of Modern US Army, got a base coat on them, and a wash of GW's Devlin Mud. I started working  some Middle Eastern Buildings which I hope to have pictures up soon.

New to the game

After years of being in this hobby, I've decided to start a blog about my miniature war gaming experiences. Here, I'll posts snippets about my painting, battle reports, or other thoughts about miniature gaming in general.

To start, lets talk about Force on Force by Ambush Alley Games. After reading a few different blogs about the game, I decided to visit their website and spend hours upon hours reading their forums. Three things are pulling me into this game...

1. The game mechanics seemed interesting, easy, fun, and fast paced. 
2. I've never tried a "historical" or modern miniature game.
3. I'm a miniature whore. Meaning I love to buy and paint new mini's.

A few weeks ago I pre-ordered their new, revised Force on Force rulebook and first new expansion Road to Baghdad published by Osprey Publishing (a great company who puts out incredible historical reference material). They arrived yesterday and a cursory glance through the rulebook gets me all excited about a new game! It's a full color hardback book, has lots of pictures and images. My only, small, complaint on first thumbing through it is that I wish some of the images were larger. But, I was too exhausted to delve into the books last night as I just returned from a long weekend at Surfside Beach, SC. I plan on getting into them tonight or tomorrow.

Also, to tide me over until I get get some metal miniatures,I've purchased some plastic 1:72 scale miniatures from Caesar Miniatures to use in some of my early modern battles. I ordered 1 box of Modern US Army (42 figs) and 1 2 boxes of Modern Militia (36 figs in each). The Modern Militia box represents African and Middle Eastern Insurgents and Rebels. For them to be so small and plastic, I am impressed with the quality of the miniatures. They'll do until I can get some metal mini's.

Here is a pic (a bad one at that) of my first squad of US Army. Washed, trimmed, based, and ready to be primed.

I hope to get these started soon. I'm still debating on camo pattern. ACU, DCU, or Multicam. Such small scale, I don't know.....