Early September 2014

Hello again Folks,

I've been working on a variety of different things.

Starting with Dystopian Legions, where I have finished my Captain, wearing a slight variation of my Desert uniform so he stands out as an officer. I am also working on my machine gun.

My Dystopian Legions Captain ready for action, wearing a variation of my Desert uniform I made up for my Dystopian Legions, based loosely off the Sudan War.

I have painted a Vampire from Westwind Productions Empire of the Dead range, ready for Dice and Decks Halloween Painting Competition (more of a whilst I remember thing than a need to get it done).

My Vampire from Westwind Productions, only thing that isn't finished on this model is the base

My third thing is building my Penisular Regiment of Napoleonic British Infantry from Warlord Games I mentioned in my last post. I have cut the regiment from large unit of 36 to a slightly larger than normal standard sized unit of 32 for Black Powder.

My Peninsular War Napoleonic British Infantry, slowly assembling.

I also have built a few more British for Bolt Action. As I have neglected this army compared to my German forces, which isn't very patriotic of me!

I had a game last Friday, Germans versus Airborne British, which was finished early, but was a close game that I enjoyed much more than I sometimes do - my tanks did something creative and took out a Sherman through combined fire! The Tiger immobilised it, and the next shot from my Panzer IV destroyed it, ending any threat to my heavy vehicles. Pictures below:
 

The Tiger stalks a Sherman from behind a house

The battlefield, Germans taking up positions behind the Church, and British Paratroopers head through a garden on the right.

This coming Friday I will be playing a game on my desert board against British 8th Army using my Afrika Korps force, which should be an entertaining game, if I get my last squad built. So until next time folks.....

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....

Dystopian Legions colour scheme ideas

Hello folks, ahead of tomorrows painting updates and a visit from Dice and Decks regular visitors at Square Orange Games, I'm going to present my ideas for colour schemes for when I finally get my hands on some of the new 28mm Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Britannia miniatures from Spartan Games (All rights to their owners for the pictures used below).
Idea 1
This is taking the original colour scheme ( a take on the Zulu-war british army uniform with metal breastplates and shoulder plates), and altering the tunic and armour colour to a more Sudan-war colour scheme, see here:

Idea 2
This takes the previous idea suggested above, and takes it further by adding the tunic beige/sand colour to the trousers as well. This colour will also be used for the Pith Helmet, as in Sudan and Boer War illustrations. Anyway, here we have the diagram for this:

This blends with my background for my force and the force being collected by another potential player we discussed on Friday.
I am planning on using Vajello Model Colour; Iraqi Sand for the tunic, trousers and pith helmet, with white ammo belts and equipment pouches. Both of these ideas will change the metal armour from plain metal to a brown or tin armour colour, I'm leaning towards a light brown, rather than using Tin Bitz from Citadel/Games Workshop, as I feel this will stand out a little too much compared with the generaly light colours on the rest of the model.
A few weeks and then we'll find out which scheme I finally decide upon.
Until tomorrow's painting update then folks......

New Updates of the Week - Warmachine, Dystopian Wars and Napoleonics!

Hello again folks, 
Well, I've been doing bits and bobs in terms of modelling and painting this weekend past.
My Exemplar Cinerators I bought for £7 instead of £26 (Cheers Ebay!), arrived and I've managed to build 4 and start painting 1. Despite believing I was missing a head for the one, I found it and so all models can be finished. Here's a work in progress picture:

The Unit so far

Close-up

The one painted one work in progress so far

In the realms of Dystopian Wars I've glued some more of the tanks to the bases and started painting the Landship, and it's coming along well:

The Landship so far, with the St.Paul's Cathedral styled top HQ section on (leaving these interchangable for turrets and mortars etc).

A  better view of the Landship. I do like the details on these rather small models.

More tanks ready for painting.

And after a long break, I've started doing a bit more to my Napoleonics, both 28 and 54mm tall models, I've removed the crew from the base of the 9 Pounder cannon to make the job of painting easier, and so I've started detailing a crewman, having done the basics on all of them, and I've started finally painting the actual cannon; pictures below:

A crewman so far, now just to recolour the hair, and add the yellow detail to loops and then paint the bandolier.

The cannon, I'm thinking of doing a more basic silvery metal rather than brass now I see how it looks.

In 54mm, I've been painting my rifleman, that I converted from a Victrix Penisular War infantryman. Its an interesting model, as the photos don't show the true extent, but the uniform is a dark green (Ork-hide Shade from Games Workshop), and the trim is black. I did some more work to the rifle, now just the base and a few details and it'll be done.

And that's this week's major updates done folks, hopefully some more finished stuff will be in next week's updates, certainly some progress will be done.
Until next time.....

Various Updates - Warmachine, Dystopian Wars

Hello again folks,

Over the last few days, I've managed a few things;
At Dice and Decks on Friday I managed to lose two Warmachine League Games, luckily this still gets me a few points, but not as many as my opponents, who were already ahead, but oh well. The one game I had no intention of winning, but I needed to have played everyone in the league, and it helps. The other game was the first of the night, and was lost due to two things: my mis-measuring of ranges due to terrain (a big pool of water), specifically charges and secondly, a lack of knowledge about the Killbox scenario, which meant my Warcaster loses me the game if he gets within a 10 inch range of a board edge.
Oh well, lessons learnt. On a different note, I have managed to make some more painting progress; I have completely painted Kreoss, my WarmachineWarcaster, and started to paint a Warjack as well. And as part of Dystopian Wars, I've finished a medium tank (the actual name of the type is lost on me), and I'm very happy with the way it's come out. Pictures are already here for this one:

Finished Kreoss, with Line of Sight markings at last.

Side-view

And from the back

The Repenter Warjack, mid-paint, although my grey undercoat for the white armour makes it look like not alot has happened to it

One Kingdom of Brittania Medium Tank, before the base was done

Alternative View

And with the base done

I'm very happy with it, only another 5 of these, 3 Artillery units and a Landship to go for my Dystopian Wars land force....

And that's the update done and dusted. I'm going to have to crack on with painting, I've slowed down way too much over the last few months and keep buying new models to add to the "to do" list.

Dice and Decks Charity Event 2012 - Fly Another Day - What went on!

Yesterday (14th July), saw Dice and Decks Gaming Club run their second all day charity event for the West Midlands Air Ambulance and Macmillan Cancer Support. The day consisted of a 16 player Warmachine tournament, a Magic the Gathering Tournament, and a variety of demo games from the likes of; Bushido (which I got a starter set for - really nice models), Infinity (Ran by Square Orange Games, who were also selling a variety of products), Heaven's Fall by Casket Games, Kings of War and others besides.

The day started off around 9ish with players arriving, with organisers being there from around 8 onwards, despite a late night of organising and set-up the day before.

There was also a raffle and Charity auction ran by John/Von - who also played in the Warmachine tournament, and has a write-up here: http://kaptainvon.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/magnus-the-warlord/ 

Early estimates put the total raised for charity at around £1050, just £54 short of last year's total.

All in all, a highly successful day, I came away with yet more stuff to paint and build; including some Dystopian Wars reinforcements for my Kingdom of Brittania fleet; a Olympic Class Troop Ship (resembling the Titanic, and certainly a large ship in comparison to most of my fleet - and it has a massive number of windows for me to paint) these are troop carriers and so are premier at Boarding Assaults and re-supplying Assault points to other ships in the fleet, also purchased was another Ruler Class Battleship for a bit more of a kick in the fleet's firepower, and an Avenger Class Aircraft Carrier to hassle the enemy and provide support.

I also have as previously mentioned, a Bushido; Prefecture of Ryu starter box, and a few more British Steel Armoured Suits for my Secrets of the Third Reich.

Dystopian Wars 2nd Update

I played my second game of Dystopian Wars on Thursday 7th June, and came off with a loss, but my opponent was only left with one mid-sized flyer left. My opponent being another member of my local Dice and Decks Gaming Club, and he collects the French, with their skimming cruisers and heat cannons. The game went well to begin with, with the advantage being on my side, with frigates being picked off. Until my opponent rolled an amazing set of rolls that led to a critical hit and subsequent magazine explosion on my Ruler Class Battleship (This blog really needs more pictures of things to help illustrate! I apologise and will sort it soon!), this explosion took out the majority of my fleet which was using the battleship as a safety unit to protect them from the bigger units in the French force, this left me with one squadron of frigates and my Doncaster Bombers to continue the game with! 

All in all a good game, we found a few slight issues in the rules, such as lack of height levels for some weapons, and the way critical hits come about (not often on units large enough to be truly affected by them) and affect smaller ships (i.e they are destroyed outright before any actual results take effect on them).

Dystopian Wars Update.

On Friday 1st June I played my first game of Dystopian Wars, against a fellow member of my local gaming club, who was using his Covenant of Antarctica against my Kingdom of Brittania. Admittedly the game took a great deal of extra time due to the learning of rules etc etc, but I enjoyed the game and came out of it with a victory.

So far I have also managed to paint 2 of my Attacker Class Frigates (out of 9, but we don't mention that), and I have also nearly finished my first of 3 Tribal Class Cruisers. 

I am torn between a set of possible reinforcements, in the form of either a land-based battlegroup, or either a Majesty Class Dreadnought (these things are awesome models and by the seems of it, incredibly powerful) or a Aircraft Carrier.

Wargames Post - Dystopian Wars

I've done it again - and started yet another wargame - Dystopian Wars by Spartan Games. It involves a alternate reality/sci-fi Victorian age World War with factions including; Kingdom of Brittania, Pussian Empire, Federated States of America, Empire of the Blazing Sun (Japanese) and Covenant of Antarctica.

There are groups for Aerial forces, Land forces and Naval Forces, each with a variety of units that can mix with alternate forces, like Sea and Air, or Land and Air. Aircraft carriers exist on land and sea, and are very characterful miniatures. Other factions have mad models, the Prussians have robots for land combat, that can also wade into the sea, and are represented by a very nice model that comes in packs of 2. Whilst the Japanese have a giant mechanical squid! 

I've selected the Kingdom of Brittania, and got the Naval starter set; 9 Frigates, 3 Cruisers and a Battleship, complete with two bomber models and tiny flyers tokens.