First Check-point

I've decided to make this post the first test of progress for the year towards the goals I set out at the start. Final update:

• Glued together Parliamentarian Dragoons, twelve foot and twelve mounted (W:ECW). Undercoated the mounted figures, ready to start painting.

So, how did I go in the first third of the year? Considering my achievements tailed off something drastic over the last month (partially due to a new computer and PC game, and partially due to lack of focus), I think I've done quite well considering my standard painting efforts over the course of a given year!

Done (towards specific goals):

1. Completed the Angmar army for War of the Ring (around fifty 28mm figures)
2. Completed the Thaniras Elf Fleet for The Uncharted Seas (10 ships and 2 dragons)

Missed:

1. Good effort toward the Teutonic Order army for Field of Glory (2 commander elements and 2 Knight elemnts done, another 4 knight elements mostly done, and several previously completed elements finally based up).

Extras:

1. 2 Byzantine Cavalry elements completed
2. a 54mm Grey Knight completed
3. a Dark Angels Rhino half painted and a unit of Dark Angels Scouts constructed
4. a Command squad, Renegade squad, Psyker squad and Leman Russ Vanquisher conversion, Leman Russ Punisher and Armoured Sentinel all constructed for the Chaos Renegade Guard
5. a block of 16 Parliamentarian Foote (pikemen) constructed

In light of the hits and misses above, I think I've achieved a reasonable 'score'. There's something to be said about having a looming deadline (for the Angmar and Thaniras forces) to get the motivation up. The possiblility of a game of Inquisitor was too much to pass up to not get distracted by the Grey Knight.

Getting the Teutonic Order army painted for an early-May game was really a tad ambitious for me. I have, however, painted enough new options to go for something completely different with my Komnenan Byzantine army for the tournament.

With all of this in mind, I think I need to adjust my targets for the rest of the year. Here is the revised To Do list:

1. 500 points of ECW Parliamentarians for Warhammer English Civil War in 25/28mm [due August, 2010]; with an additional unit or two to be done for November.
2. 800 points of Teutonic Order for Field of Glory in 15mm [due 6th November, 2010]

The 'wish list' remains relatively the same:

1. Continue painting 1,500 points of Dark Angels for Warhammer 40,0000
2. Continue painting 1,500 points of Chaos Renegades for Warhammer 40,000
3. Start 1,200 points of Noldor Elves for War of the RIng
4. Start a couple of battlegroups of Muromachi Japanese for Field of Glory

Then there's the inevitable new-comer to the scene: a Napoleonic army for either Lasalle or Black Powder, or possible both! Yet to decide on a scale, but likely 6mm. The plans for this are still 'under negotiation'...

Ok - now to set myself a target for my next post! Next week's blog will have a progress report in photos of the progress I make on the Parliamentarian Dragoons... Let's see if THAT keeps me motivated...

A Brief Hiatus

I know, I know... It's been more than a week since I updated last... Ok, more than two weeks... Hush.

• Continued painting four bases of Teutonic Order knights (FoG)
• Completed two bases of Byzantine Cavalry archers (FoG) to finish off the unit. Also completed the basing on a couple of dozen bases to make them look a little prettier than bare card.
• Finished gluing together my Daemonhost Coterie for the Renegade Guard army (WH40K)
• Completed my Grey Knight Adeptus Astartes for Inquisitor!

Yay! I got the old guy finished and he's turned out better than I had hoped (even if I do say so myself). I thought I'd manage to get him painted faster than it actually took (about 6 hours total), but he was finished in time for the Inquisitor game last weekend so all is good. See the following three shots:

The game was heaps of fun. Brother-Justicar Ezekiel teleported down into a rocky canyon to be faced by an Arbites enforcer and her pet metal dog and then hit in the back of the shoulder by a las-bolt! The unfortunate mutant with the lasgun was turned into a bloody pulp by a hail of storm-bolter rounds, an act that seemed to upset a nearby Inquisitor who seemed to be interested in talking to the old fellow. Said Inquisitor then seemed hell-bent on asking numerous irrelevant questions while a swarm of local fauna (read: hormagaunts, genestealsers and a tyranid!) decided to join the party. I managed to convince the Inquisitor that maybe the present was not quite the best time for a friendly chat, and engaged all and sundry alien monsters with bolt shell and mind-powered force halbard!

After we dispatched numerous xenos beasts, it became apparent that there was quite likely a rather limitless supply of the beasts, and I extended the invitation to the Inquisitor and his cronies to join me in my transport ship in high orbit. With a crackle and a flash of light, we vanished from the surface of the supposedly 'barren' world to ponder the content of the unfortunate mutant's pockets. It was a great game, and I look forward to having another crack.

Other than this my time has been rather poorly spent on the miniature wargaming front. The purchase of a new computer and Napoleon: Total War has absorbed rather more of my spare time than I had intended (although no less than anticipated). The likelyhood of me achieving my goal of a painted Teutonic Order army in time for the Lionheart tournament in two weeks is next to nil. Instead, I'll give my Komnenan Byzantine list another go, perhaps with a few tweaks learnt in my game against an interestingly constructed Late Imperial Roman army last weekend.

Additionally, I seem to be getting once more sucked into the idea of Napoleonic wargaming. I purchased a copy of the Lasalle rules last week and I'm quite impressed by what I see so far. The Prussian army is appealing to me, so maybe there's something more I need to add to my To Do list...

Stay On Target

It seems I am going through a phase of uncertainty as to what exactly I want to do with my modelling/painting time!

• Completed painting a Phoenix Battleship and a Cobra Cruiser for my Thaniras fleet (TUS)
• Continued painting the Dark Angels Rhino (WH40K)
• Started painting 4 bases of Teutonic Brother-knights (FoG)
• Resumed conversion work on my Grey Knight character (Inquisitor)

The Thaniras Elf fleet got another run last weekend with a small 400 point battle against the mighty Iron Dwarves. Things started off really well when I managed to engage the three dwarven cruisers on their own with almost my entire fleet. It all went pear-shaped from there as the Gods of Dice deserted me and the dwarven flame-throwing Belcher submarines got close enough to engage. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty!

Witnessing a game of Inquisitor last Sunday has inspired me to resume work on converting my Grey Knight model, after more years than I care to admit of ignoring it. The image below is a work in progress - well, it was going to be the final product, but then I got ambitious and decided to rip his hands off and try and model a nemesis force halberd... I'm also not 100% happy with the way the book on the chestplate turned out. We'll have to wait and see how it goes...

Another parcel from Forge World just arrived containing the Renegade Psykers and Nurgle Chaos Marine Sorcerer. I might have to put the Grey Knight on hold and resume modelling Plague Zombies to finish the psyker battle squad for the Renegade Guard army now that the daemonhost leading it has arrived. Or maybe I should just finish one thing before returning to the other - there's likely another Inquisitor game next meeting, so I need to get him finished and painted!

I'm getting keen to have another game of FoG too, so I've been concentrating on continuing with the Teutonic Order army during my lunch breaks at work. It really is a pain in the arse painting white, but after if I get all the Order models finished first, I'll be able to relax with the native rabble to finish the army off. Also, I may be able to at least borrow some miniatures for a game or two if I have the distinctive core elements all done...

Until next time...

Slow Going

I've been chopping and changing a lot this week. Unfortunately no models completed (gasp!), but I have returned to a number of old(er) projects:

• Continued painting Dark Angels Rhino (WH40K)
• Glued together a Renegade Militia Heavy Weapon Team and converted some Plague Zombies for the Battle Psyker Squad (WH40K)
• Started painting another Cobra Cruiser and a Phoenix Battleship for my Thaniras Elves fleet (TUS)
• Constructed four six more tiles for my modular terrain board.

Reading the Battle Missions book (WH40K) and re-reading Siege of Vraks, Volume 1 has given me some inspiration to make more terrain. Four of the new terrain tiles I made are trench tiles, making enough for a single defensive trench line to stretch across the width of the game board when playing length-wise. This should add a little spice variation to our games in the future!

The renegade milita conversion set left me with a lot of spare Cadian guardsmen bodies, and these are coming in nice and handy for the Plague zombies that will make up the numbers in my psyker battle squad. I've ordered the rather cool renegade psyker pack from Forge World that'll provide me with a suitable model for a daemonhost to lead the pack of living dead into battle.

Re-focusing my efforts into The Uncharted Seas for the club meeting next weekend has necessitated the removal of the Inquisitor models from my painting table. This is probably a good thing, as I have renewed enthusiasm for completing the conversion of the Space Marine miniature for Inquisitor into a Grey Knight, and that wasn't something I wanted to rush!

Well - TUS is top of my priority list at the moment, and I really should make a final decision on which FoG army to use at Lionheart in May. Teutonic Order versus Muromachi Japanese versus Nikephorian Byzantine (tried and tested - and very little left to paint to make the army viable!). Decisions, decisions...

Angelus Acerbus

The end of this week heralded a change of direction:

• Completed painting two Teutonic Order Sub-commanders (FoG).
• Started painting one Dark Angels Rhino APC (WH40K).
• Undercoated six more Dark Angels Tactical Marines (WH40K) and glued together a unit of five Dark Angels Scouts.

The resurgent interest in Warhammer 40,000 in our group has given me some more incentive to get some progress done on my Dark Angels army. Completion of the Rhino and marines listed above will enable me to field a complete 500 point army to get the troops gamed with.

I picked up a copy of the Battle Missions book for WH40K on the weekend, and I like it (with a couple of notable exceptions). For the most part the various missions seem to be a variation in one form or another of the different combinations available in the main rulebook. However, each includes its own variant on victory conditions and a special rule or two to add a little spice to the game. I think most of them are well done and will add some interesting tactical challenges to our games.

The Uncharted Seas is looking likely for the next meeting, and a suggestion of slightly larger games means I will once more need to alter my planned painting schedule to squeeze in a few more ships. My enthusiasm for Inquisitor is waning a little - maybe I'll give it a miss this time and see how well it gets taken up by our group. I have got to start rationalising what I paint!

I've had a brief scan of my Painting Tally (left), and it seems this blog is at least achieving its primary stated aim: get me painting more models! I think I have probably painted more figures in the first two months of this year than I did in the entirety of 2009. Just need to ensure I keep the momentum going...

A Change of Plans?

Another week passes, and a couple more mini's painted:

• Completed two bases of Teutonic Order 'Crusader' Knights (FoG).
• Started painting two Teutonic Order Sub-commander bases (FoG).
• Completed building the Renegade Militia Leman Russ Punisher and Sentinel (WH40K), adding a few etched-brass icons and plates.

It looks like a game of Inquisitor is on the cards for the next club meeting. I've been keen to play this game ever since getting the first edition of the rulebook many years ago. A distinct lack of opponents has made this impossible, but now's my chance! The only problem is my figs are unpainted, and one was recently 'accidentally knocked over' onto the floor and shattered into its constituent parts... Such a pain in the arse gluing models together!

I've been doing a little thinking about the Teutonic Order list, and still haven't come to a conclusion. I know the benefits of having a high number of battlegroups, but I'm still rather averse to the idea of half my army being made up of poor quality troops. An Inspired Commander C-in-C may mitigate this somewhat, but is it enough? Still pondering... At least what I've painted to date is the immutable core of the list, so I still have some time before being forced into any further decisions.

My youngest daughter's second birthday last weekend reigned in my opportunities to paint over the weekend, so I'm lagging quite a bit behind on getting the Teutonics painted. The Inquisitor figures will further slow this down. Maybe I need to reconsider the list and make it a little more 'elite' to reduce the number of figures to paint!

Well, a short post this time, more next week.

Enemy Ships off the Starboard Bow!

Another week (and a bit) has passed, and more progress has been made on my painting goals:

• Painted one Cobra Cruiser, three Raven Frigates and one Raven Destroyer for The Uncharted Seas. Undercoated the rest of the fleet. This now gives me enough ships to form a 500 point fleet - enough to play against my opponents. I'll shuffle the rest of the fleet down my painting list until my opponents increase the size of their own fleets!
• Resumed painting two bases of Vassal and "Crusader" Knights for Field of Glory Teutonic Order army.

My Thaniras Elf fleet engaged in their first action last meeting. I was allied with a starter set of Shroud Mages against two starter sets of Bone Griffons. I decided to try something a little unusual with my first game, adjusting my list from the generic 'starter' fleet and trying out some of the cool Elven optional choices:

1. A squadron of 2 Cobra Cruisers
2. A squadron of 2 War Dragons
3. A squadron of 2 Raven Assault Destroyers
4. A squadron of 4 Raven Frigates

A couple of pictures taken during the game:

Just after the beginning of Turn 1. Some Bone Griffon Orcas have advanced, as have the Shroud Mage frigates and cruisers and Elven destroyers.


Sometime in Turn 3: The entire Elven fleet has swarmed two squadrons of Bone Griffon Orcas. One of the Orca squadrons remained safely submerged as their colleagues were dismembered by Elven Orb-fire and Marine boarding actions.

The game was great fun, and it was a real shame that we ran out of time. I am looking forward to my next game. I think this will be a game where the basics are easy to learn, but with many subtleties that will take a long while to master.

I also had a chance to field my freshly painted Angmar army in a game of War of the Ring. Due to a high number of characters in my army (captains and command for each of my main units, a shaman for my goblins, and three Nazgül including the Witch-King of Angmar), I was feeling a little dubious about being outnumbered by an Elven army! However, the game progressed well for me. With the Witch-King offereing 'moral' support to the orc mob, they zoomed across the table through a withering hail of elven bow-fire and managed to launch successfully into combat.

My spectre was taken apart by Gandalf almost as an afterthought, but my unit of Ghostly Legion managed to neutralise two huge Elven combat units behind some impassable terrain and keep them out of the fight (2/5 of his army!). The rest of my army was then able to concentrate on his three remaining units, assisted greatly by the spellcasting ability of my Ringwraiths. Being a scenario game (capture objectives), I was able to hold on long enough until my opponent conceded defeat. A great game, well deserving of a re-match in a couple of months time.

I've now resumed painting my Teutonic Order army for Field of Glory, as this is next in line to be completed. I've been trying to work out a list to field in the next tournament, and it is proving to be troublesome. Events in the FoG world seem to be indicating the might of horde armies fielding masses of cheap troops, with the highest scorers at CanCon listing no less than 18 battle groups in their orders of battle! I can't get anywhere near this with my Order, even fielding all my vassals as poor quality, so I'll just have to run with what I can and trust in the might of the Brother-knights' unstoppable charge!

Thaniras Scout Fleet Sets Sail

This time I have a pic! But, first things first.

• Painted two War Dragons, two Raven Assault Destroyers and one Cobra Cruiser for The Uncharted Seas!
• Undercoated the next load of Thaniras ships to be painted.

Hasn't been long since my last post, so not a whole lot to report. The ships and dragons were very easy to paint to a decent enough gaming standard. Not sure I'll have the entire fleet I plan to use next weekend painted, but I'll give it a good bash.

In other (related) news, I had a surprise delivery in the post today. It seems my arithmatic about how long it would take my last order to arrive was slightly awry, and waiting for me when I got home from work was the rulebook for The Uncharted Seas. This gives me a good week to get comfortable with the rules before my first game.

Well, here's the lates pic of my fleet. With a little luck, I'll be able to post about their first glorious victory in battle. More likely, it'll be admonishing their abysmal performance at sea...

The Cult is Blooded

No photos this post, nothing spectacular to show... That doesn't, however, mean that I have been completely idle (even if I am a little later than usual in posting...).

• 13 Moria Goblins and 20 Ghostly Legion completed. This concludes my Angmar army for War of the Ring, except for the movement trays. Only half-way through month two and a painting target has been reached! Not that it was much of a target...
• Started painting two Raven Destroyers, two War Dragons and a Cobra Cruiser for my Thaniras Elf fleet.
• Stuck together a Leman Russ Punisher and converted a standard Leman Russ into a Vanquisher (I knew the Basilisk I never use would come in useful for something... the Vanquisher now has a very long main gun...).

As implied in the above, my The Uncharted Seas fleet has finally been delivered. Quite happy with the way they look (except for, unfortunately, some excess resin lumps on two of the Assault Boat hulls). I was impressed to find that the fleet box came with a set of card game markers and turning templates. I plan on having at least a few models completed by the end of this weekend, and will post some pictures then.

The Chaos Renegade Militia had their first test run in a battle last weekend (with extensive use of proxies, so no pics there, either), pitted against the raucous might of a Noise Marine force. I was quite happy with their first action, despite a rather decisive defeat, and only made a couple of minor tweaks to my intended list.

The Daemonhost and his attendant plague zombies (Psyker Battle Squad) managed to surprise the Slaanesh with a corrupting blast that reduced their Predator to a pile of twisted metal and rust. The rest of the battle was rather non-eventful until they were all fried then ripped open by a pair of Obliterators deep striking in.

The Demolisher was a disappointment, a scattering main weapon shot failing to kill even a single Noise Marine, let alone the targetted Land Raider, then suffering Crew Stunned, Weapon Destroyed and Immobilised results in just two turns of enemy shooting. It then managed to get itself destroyed by the half-strength blast (S4) of my Daemonhost after it's psychic blast deviated off the Obliterators... /sigh.

The Punisher was deployed in a dreadful location, and took far too long (rolling 1's for it's Cruising speed movement) before bringing the Gatling cannon to bear. However, it more than made up for this by successfully 'obliterating' the Obliterators in a fusilade of laser blasts. It then went on to 'terminate' four Chaos Terminators the following turn. More than paid for itself!

The rest of the force was average. The mutant beastmen (Penal Legions) managed to absorb a bit of enemy fire (three even surviving!), and the command squad and one Disciples squad (Veterans) died gloriously in Nurgle's name bringing the fight to the Noise Marines in close combat.

Hopefully the tweaked force will behave itself a little better next battle, and with a little less use of proxy models! Now, time to get back to painting up some Thaniras Elven ships for Sunday-week's battle!

Land Ahoy!

Ok, keep the momentum flowing: progress! Not a huge amount of progress in the painting department, but at least I'm getting miniatures assembled...

• 14 Moria Goblins (WotR) completed (well - except for the bases... I'm getting slack with bases it seems...)
• Painting initiated on another 13 Moria Goblins (WotR), and 20 Ghostly Legion glued together and awaiting painting.
• The command squad of my Chaos Renegade Militia (WH40K) glued together, being: 1 Champion (Lord Commissar), 1 Icon bearer, 2 militia troopers, a militia artillery spotter (Master of Ordnance), and 2 mutated beastmen brutes (Bodyguards). The previously glued together Enforcer will work nicely as the Senior Officer of the squad.
• Finally, I glued together two of the Parliament Cavalry (WECW) that I received a couple of weeks ago. I'm still marvelling at the detail Warlord have managed to sculpt into their plastics!

The Forge World models are continuing to impress. The sword of the Champion had warped a little, but a short soaking in hot water and a bit of pressure quickly straightened it up. I found a sprue of chaos mutations from an old Chaos Marine box that gave me a nice set of conversion pieces to knock up the beastmen. Maybe I should start painting these guys before I lose a bit of inspiration...

The islands I started making for The Uncharted Seas have come up quite nicely! Five of them, large and small, should do quite nicely as a starting point. The darker flock in the pictures didn't apply very well with watered down PVA glue, so I had to change my plans slightly and use them only sparingly in crevices where they had more than a flat surface to stick to. Ah well, still happy with the result.

I also finally received word that my order for the Thaniras Elf fleet has been dispatched! With just a little bit of luck I'll get them before this weekend (yeah, right) and be able to start painting them - with just two weeks before the scheduled game at the February club meeting...

Islands of the Broad Blue (or even the Caribbean!)

First things first: progress on my painting list... Ok, a little slack, but something is better than nothing!

• I've painted the base colours on fourteen Moria Goblins for my Angmar list (WotR). No piccies (left the models at work!).
• I've glued together one (1) Renegade Milita Enforcer, and one (1) Renegade Beastman conversion (WH40K).

I'm really liking the look of the Forge World militia. Are they worth the price? Probably not. Do I care? Not in the least. They're damn nice.

I'm having difficulty focusing on my 'primary' objectives - most of my evenings have been spent trolling The Uncharted Seas forum for as much info as I can get on the game. My Maelstrom order is still 'Processing'; not unexpected as the fleet box needs to be ordered in.

So - in order to satiate my need to do something for the game, I've extracted some of the polistyrene that's been hybernating in my cupboard for the last three years and knocked up some craggy islands for the game. My thoughts are they will work nicely for The Uncharted Seas, and will even fill a niche in my terrain collection for islands for my 1/1200 scale Napoleonic Naval games. If I refrain from modelling pristine sandy beaches, they'll even double as rocky outcrops for any skirmish style wargames (WotR, WH40K, AT-43...).

Five islands under construction (and a whole lot of mess!).

Once the glue is dry, I'll trim the base to the edge of the islands so there'll be no overhang. Then I'll whack on a coat of textured paint to smooth it out and grit it up a little. Finally it'll be the fun bit of fun painting them up and flocking them!

Well, enough for now. With a bit of luck, the next post will be some piccies of the finished islands!

Incipio

So it begins.

A wise(?) man once told me I should start a modelling diary in order to help me keep up with the countless projects that I seem to start with my wargaming hobby. I thought it was a pretty good idea, and this blog is my attempt to realise that goal.

The year 2010 has begun, as all years do, with the greatest of intentions of getting some of my favourite figures painted and on the gaming table. I have often been heard saying that I consider the 25mm & 28mm scales to be a royal pain in the proverbial, so this is a year to attempt to rectify that situation!

My first steps down this treacherous path is the construction of a basic outline of targets. Keep it simple. Keep it (nominally!) achievable. Ha! Here we go:

1. 500 points of Angmar troops for War of the Ring in 28mm [due 21st February, 2010]
2. 800 points of Teutonic Order for Field of Glory in 15mm [due 2nd May, 2010]
3. 1000 points of ECW Parliamentarians for Warhammer: English Civil War in 28mm [due August, 2010]
4. Several battlegroups of Muromachi Japanese for Field of Glory in 15mm [due 6th November, 2010]

Add to this some odds-and-sods of Things I'd Like To Paint! in order to keep me happy:

1. Continue painting 1,500 points of Dark Angels for Warhammer 40,000.
2. Start painting 1,500 points of Chaos Renegade Militia for Warhammer 40,000.
3. Start painting 1,200 points of Noldor Elves for War of the Ring.

This list was initially documented with the best of intentions on the 1st January, 2010, and already it has hit its first minor speed bump! I will refrain from naming names (curse you, von Lucky!), but I have since been introduced to yet another game system: The Uncharted Seas by Spartan Games. What this system really has going for it is some really nice looking fantasy ships in 1/600 scale, in a small enough quantity that painting them should be a breeze (where have I heard that before?!).

Therefor, add to the list:

1. 800 points of a Thaniras Elves fleet for The Uncharted Seas [due 21st February, 2010*]

* (assuming the wonders of online shopping and snail-mail can have said fleet delivered to my door in time!)

Well, there it is. Simple! Huh. Well, to add a little colour, I will leave as a momento the damnable picture that caused said wise(?) man to suggest this endeavour in the first place... The first batch of Dark Angels: