Lockdown post 13 - "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"

And so continues the painting table clear out, this guy is part of my desperados for Dead Mans Hand.

I was tempted to do a crazy colorful paint scheme but he looks too much like a badass to wear lots of bright colors.

I quite like the Great Escape minis,  at least for DMH anyways

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Lockdown post 12 - Gaming with the boys

Before you start calling the social distancing police the boys in the title refers to my kids, don't worry we're staying within our bubble here at t'club house. Like many of you, trying to keep the social aspect of our hobby going is quite challenging in these dark days,  however I'm lucky in that my kids share my love of gaming (to a degree). At 9 and 10 the gaming is simplified a little more than normal, and when I tell them that it also counts as school work they get even more interested. 

So the other day we cracked out Cruel Seas, the mechanism is simple and clean although moving the ships is fiddly but we muddled through. Here's a few pics:

We invented the scenario,  "Transport the tank on the tanker". This made good use of the boy's home made tank and my scratch built tanker, at some point I'll write a post about building it. 

The game was such fun that it inspired my eldest to invent his own version - Penguin Wars! I'll share more in another post.

So that's how I'm scratching the gaming itch, anyone got any good stories about theirs?

Lockdown post 11 - Some more Romans

A nice quick one this,  3 more Romans, this time legionnaires.

As stated in my last post they're quite small,  I've based them on good old GW 20mm squares to give them some height.  I'm running low so will have to get some more to stay consistent. 

Once I've enough for SPQR I'll probably start multi basing them for bigger games (if I get that far). Here's the gang so far.

Lockdown post 10 - Warlord Games EIR Centurion, Signifier and Cornicen

That's right, I've returned to ancients and finally finished an early imperial roman command section. 

These are the Warlord Games plastics,  I've quite a bunch of these to do, along with their bulkier auxiliaries and some nice auxiliary cavalry.

They're nice models, a touch on the small size, probably closer to 25mm than 28mm, the regular legionnaires are very samey but that just gives a nice regimented feel to them.

The decal was a tad tricky, with the NZ lockdown I've been unable to get any Microsol shop I'm unsure whether this will hold over time.

I did a coat of gloss before applying then hit it with the good old army painter dull coat afterwards so fingers crossed. 

I wonder how many I can get through before the end of lockdown?

Lockdown post 9 - Kitbashed Space Marine Lieutenant

With the holiday weekend I've missed a few days posts so I'm playing catch up!

Remember I said that GW give hot a while bunch o crap on the space marine sprue, well over the years I've acquired plenty of random bits and so I thought I'd make up my own Space Marine officer type dude.......thing.

I think the main body is a Black Templar,  the arms are from the old WFB Chaos Marauders and the back pack head two Saurus heads.

The head was a simple swap for an Empire Knight,  keeps in theme with the general idea of knights and chivalry don't ya think!

I enjoyed this one so much that I did another,  I'll save that for another time though. 

Lockdown post 8 - Bunch of junk into scenery

I tried to do a bit of casting a couple of weeks ago.  Not that movie actor rubbish but proper casting where you make a mold and then fill it with something liquid that sets hard and eureka, nifty model thingy.  At least that's the theory.  It turns our that casting is really hard, so all credit to you ingenious folks out there who can do it as business,  you'll continue to get my dollar (proper NZD ones and not that funny US stuff ;0) )

Anyway I did a test run and cast up some blocks which turned out ok (my detail pieces were terrible) so I figured waste not want not and asked my youngest son to build me some terrain with it.  10 minutes later and a quick rummage in my train bus box and he'd bashed together this (which I promptly painted,  cos why should he get all the fun).

This will see some use giving my warriors of Gondor to hide when they're getting beaten up by Mordor trolls!

Lockdown post 7 - Numidian Slingers

Does anyone remember Wargames Factory? They shut down some time ago but Warlord games acquired some of their lines (most of the good ones at least! ). Anyway I first picked up their plastic ancients skirmishers about 10 years ago and once again they have languished unloved in a box in my office, however my interest in ancients gaming is being somewhat revived so I figured I'd pull them forward in the painting queue!

I have to say they're not good minis, some of the poses are a trifle forced and like many of the Wargames Factory models you have to suggest texture and depth through painting (don't you just love metal minis where this is never an issue).

Hopefully I'll get these on the tabletop on the not too distant future, I have a whole bunch of early imperial romans to finish so I'll probably delve in to skirmish gaming using SPQR or Mortal Gods before moving on to the heavy weights like Hail Caesar or WAB!