Wednesday 23 January 2013

Updates since the 7th Jan.

Hello again folks,

Progress has continued on some of the projects I mentioned in last times post. In Warmachine, I have made more progress on the Colossal. I have nearly finished the left leg and groin, which can then be assembled together. The head is still a seperate feature, the same as last week, as I have made some progress on the torso or the "backpack", both have been painted with the white main colour, which requires several coats and thus why is taking so long to finish. The right forearm has been glued to it's armour piece, both of which have been painted and varnished. The shoulder is progressing, so hopefully next time i post I'll be able to show the completed version of this. Pictures of the work done is shown below as usual.
The completely painted groin piece

An older stage in the painting

The nearly finished back plate

The nearly completed left leg, very pleased with the white paint

The right shoulder plate

In new model news, I have a new unit of Menoth Warmachine Knight Exemplars, the full plastic unit, and one of these has also been nearly finished. I have also made more progress on the Priest that leads the Choir of Menoth I had for Christmas, both of these are shown in the pictures below.
The plastic unit of Knights Exemplar

The nearly finished unit leader


Priest of Menoth that leads the Choir

In other news, I have two new products to test, one is Vajello's Matte Varnish, which unlike my previous Humbrol version, leaves no shine to the models and so the detail shows up in the pictures I take much more than it used to.
Furthermore, I have given in to my Star Trek fandom and bought a 1:1400 Model of the USS Enterprise-E, as a test to see if the detail is sufficient on the AMT model kits for me to use the next scale down (1:2500) as a replacement for a fleet in Firestorm Armada.
I have also got myself a 1:2500 scale Enterprise-D, since that attempt and found it is still a little too big for use in wargaming without a rather oversized board, but I am tempted to get another ship just to see if the size is due to the Enterprise-D being rather big anyway, and not just the scale.
The Enterprise-E of 1/1400

The Enterprise-D in 1/2500 scale

And besides that, that is all that was done over the last two weeks, so until next weekend, enjoy it folks.

Monday 7 January 2013

New Year update - Additions, Games and Painting Updates



Hello folks, hope you had a good new year. This is going to be a reasonably long article, I hope, and one which will be interesting.


I have made some substantial progress in several new wargaming areas, and a slightly older one.


The first of these is Dystopian Legions, I have finished two standard troopers and my musician (if you have any knowledge the one in question is the one in a flat cap with a more intact uniform). I have also started painting the two characters from the starter set, my Lieutenant and the special character; Captain Smethington II, who I will be using the rules as him, but am painting him as a character from my own Dystopian Legions background. The Lieutenant wears virtually the same uniform as the main troopers, with more armour on the legs, a stripe on the trousers, and goggles. I have also started painting the rather exotic Sky Hussars, posh-dressed soliders armed with flamethrower pistols and equipped with jet packs, and the models come with a rather well made resin jet plume to give the impression of flight. I have painted one plume, but have made little progress on the accompanying trooper bar the black undercoat.
The finished Troopers and Musician


Carrying on with Dystopian Legions I have also played two games of it with a fellow member of Dice and Decks Gaming Club, I may have mentioned the first game and the start of the painting on some of these models in my Pre-Christmas update post. The second game (which took place on 28th December) was a much more comfortable game than the starting game, with rules knowledge needing less help from the actual book, although my game cards were being slightly less friendly than before, but they still proved useful. The game also included the Musicians for my British, whilst the Prussians used their Medics, and we each had an additional rifle squad. The game included three objectives, one of which my Lieutenant ended up guarding by the end of the game, as my riflemen from squad 1 were forced to move up to a flat-topped hill in order to contest another objective, half-way up this hill, they fired a full volley and virtually annihilated an opposing Prussian rifleman squad, leaving two from the full sized squad, and forcing them back, only my opponent’s cunning saved him from leaving me with the objective; he had hidden his own Lieutenant at the bottom of the hill (a Games Workshop terrain piece called the Temple of Skulls). Another Prussian rifle squad was also suffering due to constant shooting attacks from my other riflemen throughout the game, although they also managed to cause a few casualties to my own troops. I believe that the game was in my favour due to my opponent making a tactical error and hiding his Teutonic Knights (Super-sized and heavily armoured troops armed with machine  guns) in a wood, and then, in my opinion, not using them to full effectiveness, using them to cause minor damage to the squad that took the hill. As a whole, I can so far state in fair confidence, that Dystopian Legions is a very good game that I highly recommend to fellow war-gamers.
My Dystopian Legions force for the second game, comprising everything I have collected for the game so far. You can see some of the finished model in the foreground, and the partially completed Lieutenant.


In other news, I have finally finished assembling my Huey for 28mm Vietnam War-gaming, using the Force on Force rules, with their Ambush Valley expansion. The only disappointment was that due to the quality of the plastic used in making the model, the model doesn’t fit properly under the chassis. Additionally, due to a cleaning error, I misplaced a component, leading to the Huey missing the rocket pods and machine guns from the mountings under the doors. However, the main purpose of the vehicle is as a transport, which is still possible. I am currently painting the model, and I am currently painting the model, and you can view my progress below.


In more 28mm Vietnam war-gaming news, I have now got both US and North Vietnamese Army models to use, and have finished some of them, although there are plenty more to paint before their finished. I have finished three US Army troopers; A Sergeant, shown in my previous post, the Commanding Officer, and a Soldier armed with the M14, which was phased out in favour of the M16, so I have a few M14s, but many more with M16s. I felt the M14s add a bit of variety to the otherwise rather same looking force. The North Vietnamese have Mat49 SMGs, RPGs and AK-47s, compared with the more various US weapons such as; M14s, M16s, M79 Blooper Grenade Launchers, and M60 support weapons. I have finished one NVA trooper so far, armed with an AK-47 and a grenade. The pictures of the finished models are displayed below as per usual.
The three completed US Army troopers and an NVA trooper
The UH-1 mid-way through painting, I have left the rotor blades seperate for ease of painting and for safe transporting around.


In Warmachine, I have now got my hands on a Choir of Menoth, which little progress has been made on due to the other new addition, a Judicator colossal. This model is turning out to be large group of medium paintjobs, as I have made most the parts into sub-assemblies for “easy” painting. So the head is one (finished, I would like to add) part, then the main torso, the rocket pods are two sub-assemblies, the engine pack, the shoulders, and arms, then the groin, and finally the two legs. This is partially due to me having to paint white, which as most war-gamers would attest, is a evil colour to try and paint in a smooth coat, and the Judicator is covered in large flat armour plates, all of which need to be white for my colours. Below are a few photos of progress on the model so far:
The finished Collossal's head

The left leg, with the grey on-top-of-black undercoat I use before I add the white colour, shown on the foot.


The completed forearm guard plate

The mid-complete forearm and hand
Hopefully I can complete or at least assemble the new Warmachine, so that I can get back into the action as part of the Warmachine Journeyman  League at Dice and Decks.

And that concludes my latest blog update; hopefully some more progress will have been made by the next update. Till then, have fun folks....