The Guild are ready

Wow! It's been a while since I posted! I seem to have lost the cable for my camera so couldn't get the pictures off it and I didn't want to use my phone, but James has kindly loaned me a card reader so I can finally get some more pictures up here. Without further a-do here's Perdita Ortega and her crew!

I've started the Resurrectionist crew, but I've got a bit sidetracked with more Vikings. Hopefully I'll get them done before Christmas, as per my goal!

Malifaux or bust!

A couple of posts ago I talked about concentrating on a few rulesets so that I could get better at them and not be constantly changing from one week to the next. I realised the other day, though, that of all the rules that I shortlisted, Malifaux is the only one that I cannot actually play yet, as I don't have the figures painted. So, I have determined that I shall have 2 crews painted before Christmas! I've already posted pics of Santiago and Francisco Ortega, so no surprise that Perdita is the first Master I'll be tackling, but I also have the McMourning box. I took the opportunity of the Maelstrom sale to get a couple of extra minions that I like, too, so I should have enough for a smallish game once all done. I think I'll need to speed up a bit, however, so I'll probably not try to get as high a finish on the rest. Having said that...I'd had Papa Loco half finished on the paint bench for ages, so I just managed to basically finish him tonight. Nino is already half done, so I'll maybe try to finish the Ortegas to the same quality and just batter out the McMourning crew. That's the theory, anyway!! :)

I really need to get my camera battery charged! These were taken with my phone again, hence the lack of sharpness! Hopefully I'll get a group shot once all the Ortegas are done with a decent camera!

Lock up your daughters!

Just to prove that I am still around and do occasionally still paint some things I thought I'd post a picture of a work in progress - the Vikings! Since SAGA was announced Vikings and the Dark Ages in general are totally in vohgue, but these are actually a WAB army in the making. I've also finished 10 Hirdmen and 12 Bondi archers, except for the basing which I'll do all together. Yes...I've been sidetracked from the Malifaux painting, but I have another two of the Ortegas mostly finished and just need to push on to finish the full crew.

The boys are back in town!

Also, to prove that I actually game from time to time, too, here's a picture of a pretty good game of Shako II played at the club last Tuesday. My French infantry brigade (the lines in the foreground) saw off a Russian grenadier brigade which tried to break my lines at bayonet point! Much fun was had all round! I really like the rules and hope to play a bit more in future!

Santiago Ortega

First of all, I hate varnishing figures! Once again I applied just a smidge too much matt varnish (I use Humbrol spray varnish) and I got a bit of frosting on this figure. It doesn't look too bad in real life, but the photo really picks it up. As for the figure...I think I'm pretty happy with the end result, but it was just one of those figures that you sometimes struggle with. Various parts were painted and then repainted until I got to a point I was happy. Some figures I just seem to paint almost without thinking and they come out exactly as I envisioned, but others just seem like real hard work for some reason! Anyway...onto the pictures!

A bit of Flames of War and some musings

Played Flames of War for the first time in about a year on Tuesday and I had forgotten just how much fun it is! It gets such a bad reputation and it's a shame, because it really is a good system. It's core is simple and reasonably easy to remember, but all the wee bolt-on rules give it a lot of depth and character. My opponent, George, hadn't played before and he seemed to rather enjoy himself and I can see us playing more in the future. As it was his first game I thought I'd keep things manageable and built 1000 point armies from my American Rifle Company and my brother's Motorised SS Panzergrenadiers. We didn't have any scenario worked out so I just took plenty of grunts, a few tanks and some air cover for the US to let him get a feel for different aspects of the game. When we got there I set up a table that looked good to me and then we decided on sides and scenario. George took the Americans and ended up attacking in a Breakthrough game. With the forces he had, and against SS fanatics, that was always going to be a tough task!! And so it proved.

The battle starts!

I set up with my two platoons nicely dug in with reasonable fields of fire and attached an MG42 HMG to each to beef them up even more. The rest of the HMGs were placed on the objective which was designated the top of a hill. I had 3 Panzer IVs which were held of as reserves, too. George deployed in similar fashion with his LMGs attached from the weapons platoon and the mortars in the rear. He had 4 Shermans on the flank march that would bring them on behind the objective. He started his attack towards my leftmost platoon immediately, but very soon came under very fierce MG fire and sustained about 30% to 40% casualties. He retreated behind some walls which saved his troops from rapid destruction with the bulletproof cover rule. He just couldn't scratch the Germans in front, though, as they were also in bulletproof cover. So it devolved into a shooting match which the Americans just couldn't win, so George decided to bring up the mortars. However, I seized the opportunity to move 3 teams up to assault his remaining troops which resulted in the Rifle platoon breaking and taking the company commander with it.

The USAAF does it's bit while the PBI advances. The SS in the houses enjoy some good cover.

After softening the up the Germans do what the Germans do best! Counterattack!

Meantime, on the other flank, the second American platoon cautiously occupied a farmhouse and probed the German defenses there, but I think the bloody nose the first platoon had just received made him pause and they never really moved any further. By then my reserves had arrived and I decided to move them to intercept the Shermans as the infantry didn't need the support. Thus began the final showdown! I had moved a couple of the Panzers to start long range fire support against the Americans in the farmhouse and when the Shermans turned up they managed to get some rear shots and destroyed one and bailed another. But the German experience showed and they mounted and returned fire which destroyed one and bailed the rest! Once the Panzershrecks turned up and brewed up a second tank it was pretty much over and we called it. I really need to take more pictures next time!

I admit that the lists weren't perfect and the Americans could have done with more artillery support, but it was a good game still and I think George learnt a good deal about the rules and how you definitely need combined arms to shift dug in infantry. Small arms fire just ain't going to do it!

We also talked a lot about the direction our gaming has been taking. I'd been musing about this for a while and I think we are both in the same mind that the sheer number of projects that we've been attempting is just too much. Part of the problem is the number of new shiny rules coming out and the number of different game systems being played at the club. So we have decided to try and concentrate on a few systems that we can learn well and get some momentum up with. I think that for WW2 it will be Flames of War and Arc of Fire, plus Check Your 6! in the air. For ancients I think we're going to concentrate on Warhammer Ancient Battles which really appeals to me as I have many Fantasy Battle games under my belt from my teens and we're going to concentrate on the Dark Ages for now, which is a period that is new to me and so is quite exciting. In fact, after the really rough year I've had so far I think that a new period is just the thing to refresh my hobby and inject some enthusiasm again, which was waning a little I must admit!

Oh, and Malifaux! I've finished Santiago and will post pics as soon as he has some matt varnish on! :)

First Malifaux figure - Francisco Ortega

Had a very nice and relaxing holiday in Cornwall for two weeks and now I'm back to painting again! Having finished the Fallschirmjager for the Crete games (photos will be posted when we re-play the Crete game) I am finally at a point where there is no real pressure to paint loads of figures for a game, so I thought I'd start on the Malifaux figures I have. I picked up the books and a couple of the starter boxes ages ago, but never got round to painting them. I've read the books and I think the game system looks really innovative and fresh, so I'm quite looking forward to giving it a try. Also, as there are only a few figures needed it's possible to spend a bit more time painting them, especially as they are all so individual. So here's Francisco Ortega, a Guild gunslinger!

Had quite a bit of fun painting this figure. In particular, it was my first use of Foundry paints, which was Buff Leather for the duster. I'm quite pleased with the end result and it really seemed to suit my style of painting. I didn't find that they needed that much thinning and over a black undercoat the shade tone needed a couple of coats, but once on the mid-tone and highlight went on fine. The colour is really nice and makes the duster look the part.

The base needed a bit of dressing too, so I got the greenstuff out (actually I needed it to fill the join in the arm of the next figure, Santiago, anyway). I thought that a skull with a bullet hole in the forehead would be a fitting decoration so went with that. Now, I've toyed with making faces with spare GS before but never quite got it right, so this was going to be a challenge, but I think it turned out alright. I'm starting to get more of a feel for the putty and I think I might be ready to start trying out a sculpt or two! :) Here's another shot of the base from a different angle.

Sarah the Seeress

Finished the latest Reaper figure, except for the basing. Unfortunately I won't be able to finish that for a wee while, so thought I'd just post a picture now, rather than later. Also, unfortunately, the battery died on my camera before I could get a decent shot, so I had to use the camera on my mobile phone, hence the slight loss of sharpness. You get the idea, though! I think that the gold looks a lot better than it did on the dwarf figure and I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making on my non-metallic metal. Not entirely sure what my next figure will be but I'll probably try to keep practicing with that technique. Perhaps some more gladiators would be a good idea...!

You know, I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get this done so quickly, because what you haven't seen are the 15 or so 20mm German Fallschirmjager I've been doing also! Of course, the lovely Sarah was a lot more fun! :)