Zulu's - not thousands of them!

A bit of a random diversion,  some of the now defunct Wargames Factory plastic Zulus. I think Warlord Games acquired most of their lines,  the Zulu were one of the better ones as they're pretty simple and easy to pose. 

These were easy to paint and went together quite well too. I will do some darkest Africa gaming at some point, eventually as I've got some British Colonial troops somewhere. 

I have another 30 to paint up at some point along with a few Perry Mahdist Ansar so I could run a pretty busy little skirmish game, once I get some kind of gaming mojo going!

The Challenge - 3 Months and what do I have to show for it.........

Well quite a lot it turns out, as the most interesting realisation for me was that I actually enjoy painting! That sounds a bit weird seeing as I've been doing it for about 17 years however I actually signed up to the challenge thinking that I'd use it as a sort of artificial project manager, constantly bugging me to deliver on my milestones and meet my deadlines, and at first thats exactly how it felt. However as the months passed I became more and more motivated to paint things that i enjoyed. Most of my painting over the years has been motivated with one singular goal - to get my armies on the table and roll dice. And yet my motivation has changed, maybe its my getting old (I hit the big 40 a couple of months before the challenge started) but i find that if I'm not enjoying painting then I don't want to do it, no matter how much I enjoy gaming with the figures.

So my plan going in to the challenge was to paint my Lord of the Rings figures, they were all based up and undercoated, and yet when I look back at what I've actually completed I find a whole of host of scales and genres - 15mm and 1/3000 WW2, Victorian Sci-fi, 15mm Sung Chinese, 28mm Dwarven Pirates and of course GW Lord of the Rings. My output was a total 82 models of which only 50% (41) were what I had planned to do.

Actually to be honest I never planned to paint the cave troll, it was more of a sanity check for myself as to whether I had the time and technique to paint 54mm (I was going to get involved in the Perry/Jackson ANZAC project but decide my sanity, employment or marriage wouldn't survive the pressure).

I think the most enjoyable models to paint were Smeagol (Gollum) who seemed to paint himself, the Victorian Sci-Fi (and especially the footie scarf!) and the Dwarven Pirates (Oooarrr).

Huge thanks to ScottB for talking me in to taking part, Mr C for hosting the crazy thing and most importantly my fellow challengers. It was great to see the range of genre's and scales on display, the varied interpretations of the bonus rounds and the quite terrifying volume that some of the challangers were able to put out!

Some of the challengers are putting up a bit of a retrospective on the challenge blog, head on over for a good nosy

Anyway here's the combined outputs of 3 months of initially frantic and then quite enjoyable painting!

Back to VSF - This time its Empire of the Dead

I guess the clue is in the title with this. As a bit of a break from all the Lord of the Rings/WW2 gaming Scott kindly offered to introduce me to the wonderful world of Westwinds Empire of the Dead, a victorian science fiction game that is definitely more gothic horror than sci-fi! 

Anyway it gave me the chance to play with my recently completed Brotherhood of the Black Sun that I submitted for the Victorian bonus round of the challenge, I desperately wanted to get my victorian football hooligan on the board. Anyway on a lovely sunny New Zealand summer day I made the commute after work up to Scott's secluded country mansion to partake in tea and dice rolling, taking both my newly completed models and the Warbases Warehouse model which I had finally completed over the weekend. Scott was keen to see the scale of retail scenery and how it compares to his splendid home made Victorian terraces. I originally thought that the warehouse was a little too large however when laid out next to his scratch built houses it all looks about right.

Anyhow, lets get to the action shall we, the scenario rolled was "Fracas" with both of us having to split our forces and each deploy in two opposing corners of the board. This meant that I could either choose to have two seperate engagements or frantically try to link up my forces to fend off Scott's agressive advances. My faction was made up of a President armed with a heavy pistol and big axe, VP with light pistol and flaming brand, 4 membership in bloody great suits of armour (my Ironmen!) and 1 membership with a pistol and sword cane (purple suit!)

Scott was using his Pall Mall Patrons with President and VP armed with Pistols and swords member ship with rifles, repeater rifles and scoped rifles (arghhhhhh). The game uses a points system where you spend shillings to hire the members of your faction so it was all balanced in game terms but to be honest neither of us cared as it looked like a fun story to play out!

Scott moves his president up through the graveyard to threaten my president who is hiding behind the warehouse while I sneak two of my Ironmen around the terraces (sneak in ruddy great suits of armour, yeah right?). To back up the Ironmen my VP takes aim with his pistol but he must be a little blind not to notice Scott's marksmen taking aim over the hedge!

I try and sneak my other two Ironmen round the other side of the terraces but Scott saw it coming and moved to intervene. Now if only I can get priotity and activate them first I can pulp the annoying bloke with the repeater rifle. Meanwhile my President and his buddy engage in a pistol duel with Scotts president and supporting chap.

"Surprise" comes the muffled shout from inside the armoured suits however I didn't get priority and Scott obligingly gunned them both down.

Not to worry I've got the outflanking manouver,..............ah, that didn't work did it!

My president is getting worried, his minions are falling and the Pall mall Patrons are sneaking round the back!

Not to worry, my VP makes a dash for the marksmen and in a flurry of pistol shots and flaming brand action....... fluffs his attacks and beaten down.

The state of play, I've got two members of my faction left, Scott suddenly remembers the breakpoint rule and advise me that I've lost "Phooey" cries I, " have at thee" and we agree to play on!

and in a stunning display of brutality its President vs President with the Brotherhood of the Black Sun emerging victorious as Scotts' president succumbs to his wounds.

But it was not to be as Scott swarmed my President after easily dispatching purple suit and mobbed him, but not before he despatched another one of Scotts faction.

A belting game with plenty of scope for campaigns and development, I enjoyed it more than In her Majestys Name and will definitely be investing in a copy. Watch this space for more victorian gothic horror sci-fi sillyness!

Ripper Street resurrected by Amazon deal

Text below lifted from BBC News - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26351457

Victorian crime drama Ripper Street is to return to screens via Amazon's video on demand service.

The BBC cancelled the show in December due to poor ratings, but Amazon has now commissioned a third season for its Prime Instant Video service - formerly known as Lovefilm Instant.

The show will premiere on Amazon and screen on the BBC a few months later. Amazon has also acquired the UK subscription streaming rights of the first two series of the show.

The BBC will continue to make a contribution to production costs of the new season, while other broadcast partners - including BBC America and the Irish Film Board - will remain on board as part of the new arrangement. Filming on the new series - which will continue to be produced by Tiger Aspect and Lookout Point - will begin in May.

A date for its premiere on Amazon Prime has yet to be determined. The programme's makers said the third series would go ahead as originally planned with eight episodes, the same budget and "slightly more bells and whistles" than the previous two series.

Good news for us Victorian fans however I suspect that the campaign to bring it back was irrelevant as this was just a marketing ploy by BBC, plan I suspect was never to cancel the show but just to find alternate funding.

We’ll never know, however at least we’ll still have a decent show with the same production team!

IHMN - Inspector Johnsons Casebook - History Comes to Life

It’s been a while dear friends however once again I present to you, in glorious Victoriana colour the return of the ineffaceable Inspector Johnson.

The action begins on page 48.

simplebooklet.com

Westwind Productions Sale

I guess the title is a dead giveaway however Westwind are having a sale. Now its not on everything, particularly both EOTD and Forged in Battle are excluded (darn), however Berlin or Bust is included and the savings are pretty darn good = 25% off.

So I’ve ordered my vehicles for my DAK motorised column for the upcoming Bolt Action day in Manchester. My list is rubbish so I won’t do very well however it’s the force I want to collect and once complete I’ll start my 2nd NZEF to oppose them. I’ve always wanted play out some games in North Africa and this will satisfy my skirmish scale gaming itch.

Head on over to Westwind for a great deal. 

Terrain Update

This is a quick one as I beaver away at populating my nice new gaming board. There are many really good blogs that document the authors efforts at scratch building buildings and terrain (and here’s just two -  Scotts Wargaming and London By Midnight) however I really don’t have the time to devote to it at the moment (two young children, busy job etc etc).

So I have invested in the amazing innovation of MDF laser cut buildings. Now with a limited budget I have had to spread my funds around a little therefore I have decided that I can afford the time to paint and accessorise my terrain. I shall be doing a little scratch building however these are my first purchases from Martin at Warbases: 

The Church is a lovely little model, very reminiscent of the small village churches dotted around the English countryside and shall be styled on the local church in Ilkley close to where I grew up. It was easy(ish) to build using wood glue, almost all the slots fit well except for the tower floor which needed a little filing. 

However now we come to the problem, I also bought Warbases warehouse model with the view to use it a either a coach house or some kind of steam factory. After building it I then put it next to the church and did a little mental scream - its huge!

 Without a sense of scale the warehouse model makes the church look ridiculous and I shall have to dress the model to explain the scale of. Therefore I’ll be calling in to my local craft shop today for plenty of Evergreen and Plastruct bits and pieces so I can then explain the scale. I’m thinking along the lines of pipes and guttering, fire escapes and walkways (both internal and external). One of the key criteria for my buildings are that you can game the interior therefore I’m very happy that 4Ground have started releasing furniture. Hopefully that should help put the building in scale.

The plan for the Church is to set it in its own grounds, surrounded by a low stone wall. To give it some more height I’m going to mount it on a slight incline and I’m toying with the idea of seating it on some plasticard with etched brick work to give it more height. I also have a graveyard planned to sit separate from the church (using the Renedragravestones) as quite often in the UK graveyards are apart from the church.

Now, I have a deadline for this lovely terrain as I recently had an email chat with Steve at Sarissa and have some of their lovely Gaslamp Alley buildings on the way, they currently don’t list a bundle offer on their website however they’re happy to discuss your needs.

Next up is an update to Inspector Johnsons Casebook which describes a very brutal encounter with rogue elements of Her Britannic Majesty’s military!

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Ste

The Tiles Have Arrived

And finally I got the phone call telling me that my floor tiles were available for collection. It's weird being exited over some floor tiles however it's been over ten years since I've had a gaming board at home so I've been really looking forward to building this one.

Anyhow, on to the matter at hand. The board is primarily going to be for skirmish gaming so I decided on a 3ft x 3ft, so once I'd dropped the tiles at home I dragged my lazy carcass over to my local diy store for some battens and hardboard. I wanted to make it out of mdf however it's a) too expensive, 2) not cut in 3ft widths and iii) errrr, I can't think of a third.

So I bashed together my 3 x 3 board and liberally smeared it in pva as I don't trust the adhesive component of the supposedly self adhesive tiles. Below is a rather bizarre pic of the board with tiles attached as it dries on our kitchen table (an alternative use for some of my weird reading material). I've also provided a comparison shot of the tiles with few of my IHMN Scotland Yard for all you folks with an interest in this.

I'll post some more once it's dry and touched up. The next step is buildings (you can't have a good Victorian wargame without some Victorian scenery) for which I will be copping Pitt and buying the rather excellent Gaslamp Alley range from Sarissa Precision with some extras from Warbases (collecting those from Fiasco in Leeds this weekend).

Stay tuned as it looks like the brave Inspector Johnson may be moving to a more scenic locale!

I’m Baaaaaacccckkkk!

Well its been a short while since my last post simply because I went on holidaty. And a lovely holiday it was, most relaxing (well as relaxing as it can be with 2 young children, sand and a swimming pool!). That’s why there has been a distinct lack of hobby material emanating from this glorious halls. However that shall now be rectified!

First up we have a little terrain for my ongoing foray into 28mm World War 2.

These little beauties are designed for the Dust Tactics game however they are perfectly scaled for 28mm wargaming and are a treat to put together. Each one is a three part model, no flash, takes paint really well and as an added bonus the doors open (woohoo). 

At between £15 and £20 for six this is an easy building purchase to decorate your WW2 games and provide an objective (and can double up for SciFi games as well).

I’ll post some images of the painted ones in action next week.

Next is a further update to my Flames of War exploration. I have all the models I need to complete Easy Company, 506th PIR other than the character pack that Battlefront do, however I’m not sure whether I want to get it. I think mainly because it feels like a sales gimmick, however one thing I am doing is sticking to Battlefront mini’s for my airborne as I think they are good sculpts that are reasonably priced. I have almost completed 1st platoon, two 57mm guns, three M4’s and half a Glider Recon & Intel platoon so I’m making pretty good progress. I don’t like to put up in progress pics of mini’s so you’ll have to wait till I’m done.

And finally I’m about to start my In Her Majesty’s Name board and have planned out what I need. We have found that the game works great on 3x3 so I’ve ordered two packs of these little beauties for the basing:

I’ll put nice of them down on a precut MDF board and edge it for durability so should look pretty good and also multi purpose (I may branch out into Malifaux and EoTD). Now as I’m building this board it would make sense to utilise the reverse so I have an alternate gaming area. So what could I prepare the other surface for, perhaps a new project, hmmm let me see……….

More next week kids.

Ciao

Wow, I’m a year older. Guess I’d better do a review!

As the title suggests I am a year older (and that means me and not the blog) so in the tried and tested tradition of most bloggers on an anniversary of some kind I thought I’d do a review of my efforts since my last birthday.

September 2012 - Septmeber 2013

Well it was quite a significant 12 months in terms of gaming and hobby related bumpf (Yorkshire slang for “stuff”). It was around this time last year that I finally made the decision to abandon GW products completely, my reasons being much the same as many other gamers, bloggers, housewives, employees etc:

• Price increases
• Rules changes
• Change from hobby to profit orientation

I could wax lyrical on the decision however suffice it to say that I have happily not looked back. I had already been playing WAB for a while and still do occasionally, that being the one rule set that still appeals. However I have since broadened my interests into more historical periods and much like most wargamers out there have been overwhelmed with the amount of good material being published, cast, moulded etc. That’s not to say that it wasn’t available previously however it would seem that to this humble bloggers view there has been a sea change in where the £/$/Y/E is being spent and thus a number of smaller companies (one man bands) are benefitting from this bounty.

So where did my hard earned get spent in the last twelve months? Well my list of hobby projects seems to have sky rocketed over this period, with slight deviation into the evil world of WHFB (argh!):

In Her Majestys Name - Ooh where to start. A nice cheap ruleset from Osprey, skirmish based so there’s minimal outlay and the rules writers are active on discussion forums. The epitomy of hobby based wargames in my view and spawned my desire to do a little fictional writing (see Inspector Johnsons Casebook here).

WAB/Clash of Empires - Still playing however not so much CoE as it feels a little like the poorer cousin to WAB. Unfortunately I have too many projects on the go at the moment (Saxons, Early Imperial Romans, Greeks).

Bolt Action - World War 2 skirmish games at their most “Hollywood”. I jumped in feet first on this one when the rules were released, managed to drag a big chunk of our gaming club along as well and will be assisting in a campaign day we’re running in December. The side benefit is it managed to revive my interest in WW2 gaming in general which resulted in :

Flames of War - My disillusionment with GW led me to trade in a big chunk of my rulebooks to Amazon (boo hiss I hear you cry). However I then spent my ill gotten gains on a US Airborne force with some online sellers and have been thoroughly enjoying this revival in a system that big chunks of the gaming populace seem to have abandoned (typical). In a similar vein this leads to:

Lord of the Rings - I know, I said I had abandoned GW. Well it would seem that not entirely although in my defence I would categorise this as New Line/Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings gaming as the imagery comes from the films hence my reason for collecting this. It was also done as a way to demonstrate that you can game fantasy settings on a budget, all my purchases have been from other gamers who need to clear their lead/plastic pile and I have made some mutually beneficial trades.

WFB - Warhammer Fantasy Battle (on a budget). I did this purely as a finger to the ridiculous pricing policy of GW and put together a 1500pts Daemon army for our club tournament. I did badly however won the best painted for my £11.09 army (for my see my article here)

Saga - Still trying to figure this one out however its fun, uses my existing figures and seems different enough for me not to get it confused with other systems.

English Civil War - I started this simply because I picked up a bunch of Warlord Games Parliamentary figures on the cheap. Luckily a fella at our club is a bit of a local ECW buff so ran a small campaign based on the local area using WAB ECW and Pike & Shotte. We’re still finishing this one off!

Naval WW2 - This is a bit of a solo effort by me and I still have no opponents. Not sure what rules I’ll use however I intend on setting up the Hunt for the Bismarck and picked up the Davco models from Skytrex at Triples earlier in the year.

So am I going to complete any of this? Well I am still plugging away at my LoTR models and have opponents at the club on a slow boil (metaphorically speaking). WW2 seems to be my focus at the moment with our upcoming Bolt Action campaign and Flames of War modelling (which I’m thoroughly enjoying). I should have a bit of a modelling update shortly and have been trying to sort out the terrain for a Normandy beach assault for the club so will share that once I figure out the beast way to layout 5 x 6’ boards on a limited budget.

IHMN - The Consulting Detective and Good Doctor

Well I finally got the Consulting Detective and Good Doctor painted up last night and I am in two minds over the results. I really like the sculpt of the Holmes model; I think it captures the personality of the character quite well. Then I set brush to model and found it to be a demoralising process and a bore to paint. The large surface area without detail means that it is tricky to play with highlights and shadows unless you’re a better painter than I. I also wish I had chosen a better colour scheme as he looks a little drab

The Good Doctor on the other hand initially looks a little ridiculous however once I got into the swing of things I really enjoyed painting him. However I must remember that if I am basing models on scenic bases to put them on prior to painting as I managed to damage the paint jobs in the process.

Also I don’t know if others have this problem but I use a combination of Vallejo Model Colour and Game Colour and have found the Model Colour to attract dust to a ridiculous level. It also dries to an “uber” matt finish which just highlights any imperfections on the model.

Anyway, other than the Special Branch Sergeant I’ve finished my Scotland Yard Company. Next stop is a Lt Col Johnsons British Rifle Company!

I shall see you all anon.