Grey Month!

Apparently it was UCM month! Although it is in theme with the weather this month...

I didn't intend to only paint UCM stuff but Matt and I have played a couple of Dropzone Commander games this month, he's bought some new stuff, and we're planning to play some of the Attacker/Defender scenarios that we've never played.

Saying all that, up first is some Dropfleet:

 

Toulon! The final 2 models of my UCM fleet! This means I am now up to date with my entire fleet. Until I can find someone selling a Battleship for a decent price... These 2 mean I now have 6 of this frigate type meaning I have flexibility with my fleet.

On to Dropzone:

 

 Broadsword and Flak infantry! The big tank can either be used as a famous commander and comes with 4 extra cards for the command deck, and can also be used on its own or with another as a heavy choice. Thats a big gun! The infantry are the last of the different UCM infantry available to me. I've already used these in a game and they added another option for shooting down gates or dropships.

 Seraphim and Falcon B! The start of my airborn reinforcements. The large ship is a Seraphim Retaliator, which although slow compared to other fastmovers comes with a good supply of rockets! The Falcon B are armed with a mixture of AA and ground attack weaponry. Fun times!

Eagle! Last but by no means least is this. This is a funny one as I never thought I'd like using this but got it cheap off ebay. However, having used it in a game I already love it! Great for demolishing buildings from afar!

So, there you go for this month. Hopefully will be a bit more colourful next month!

Return Of The Blog!

I know I know! Its been a while etc etc

I'm going to try and make a proper effort at blogging from now on. Even if no one reads it, it's a good record for myself of what I've done! Speaking of records, one of the main problems I found with this blog lark is remembering what I've painted...

So, I now keep a record of all the things I've just painted, then I can photograph them, and present them here for anyone that cares! I'm going to aim for a monthly update, depending on how much I manage to get painted. 

Anyway, here is the last months worth off the production line:

First up:

 

Spaceships! More of my UCM fleet. Recent games have shown me that I didn't have enough dropships, and the UCM have the worst of the fighter/bombers available. So, here are another 2 New Orleans strike carriers. This brings my total to 6 strike carriers, giving me more flexibility. The larger ship is my 2nd Seattle fleet carrier, giving me more launch capacity. Combined with my Atlantis battlecruiser, means I can now put out a launch capacity of 9, so they may be crap, but at least there will be a lot of them!

 

More spaceships! These are Santiago corvettes. I now have 7 of these, enabling me to get across the board quickly and hopefully take out some of the oppositions strike carriers or void gates before they are able to deploy any troops.

 

Space stations! This is a lovely kit that Hawk make enabling you to create a number of stations of varying sizes. I managed to get 1 large, 5 medium and 3 small out of it. I'm not putting a massive amount of effort into painting these as they aren't used in every mission. Even with a minimal paint job they look quite snazzy though!

 

Phoenix! My regular opponents have been moaning about my Dropzone command Kodiak for ages, so I bought this, the other command model available to me. I'm sure they'll start moaning about it at some point too...

 

Acoma! This is a separate project my nephew Mike and I have started. These are 6mm Baccus Samurai. The Acoma are from Raymond Feists Riftwar world, an excellent series of books we both read years ago. We wanted to do a 6mm project, decided on using the Kings of War Ancients lists, and here we are, the start of a force!

 

Gallic Infantry! These are for my Impetus Carthaginian army I started ages ago. I'm making an effort to get the army painted to the point where I have a legal force to play with. The above 2 units are expansions of 2 units I'd already painted which mean I can do 2 large units:

 

See! These Xyston models are a pleasure to paint. I have 2 units of Gallic cavalry to paint and then the basis of my force is done. Romans beware!

So there you have it, a smorgasbord of visual delights for you!

Ginger Nutjobs!

I've always loved Dwarf Slayers! The idea of them having some kind of trauma that caused them to dye their hair bright orange and charge at the enemy with reckless abandon always amused me...

So here are some now:

Berserker Brock Riders! Who doesn't love a ginger loony on a giant badger!?

I know the Old World didn't technically have these but I always felt that some form of cavalry was the one thing missing from the Dwarf army. 

Next up:

Dwarf miners! These are some of my favourite Evil Empire Dwarf models. As such I plan on having a horde of them! This will mean trawling ebay for a few more models but it'll be worth it.

And now for something completely different!

Not sci-fi!

Everyone will be beside themselves with joy to see my recent Kings of War rebasings! So here they are:

Rock Lobber! Or Jarrum Bombard as it's now called... 

Thunderers! Or Ironwatch Rifles as they're now called....

Told you! Who doesn't need more guns?!

I'm trying to get everything that's painted for my dwarves rebased. Once this is complete I can decide what I want to do with the rest of the spare models I have.

And now for something completely completely different:

Royal Navy Marine! I have 14 of these which will be used with Mike using the Cutlass rules. I've done this as a test run to see how I would paint them and if I could be bothered to paint the rest... And I think I can! This guy took a while but now I've got the process down, doing some more shouldn't take as long.

I hope...

Spaceships!

Dropfleet! Woo hoo!

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, it finally arrived! I have actually had some ships painted since about November but didn't have any bases to mount them on until my pledge arrived at the start of January...

So, first up are these:

 

Moscow and 2 New Orleans. The Moscow is a properly shooty ship, covered in guns! It can do some serious damage when it goes weapons free. The New Orleans are my strike carriers, which are essential in the game as they are one of the ships that can drop troops onto the planets surface. 

Next up:

 

Berlin and 2 Toulon. The Berlins main weapon is a big laser which is whats known as a Burnthrough gun which is capable of doing lots of damage. The Toulon are more or less your standard shooty frigates.

Finishing the starter fleet: 

 

Seattle. This is my fleet carrier. It has a couple of big guns on it but its other main function is its ability to launch fighters and bombers!

Expanding from the starter set are: 

 

A Rio and 2 Taipei. The Rio is your standard shooty cruiser whilst the Taipei are close action specialists. You have to get in cloose with them but they are able to deal out alot of damage for a little ship.

Further expansion: 

 

Avalon and 2 Lima. The Avalon is my kickstarter exclusive battlecruiser. If you haven't noticed, it has an even bigger version of the burnthrough laser on the Berlin. It also has 4 other big guns, so looking forward to using this bad boy! The 2 Lima are interesting ships that I think have an ability for the UCM which at the moment, no other fleet has. The ability to independently scan other ships, adding spikes and making them easier to see!

More big guns:

 

2 New Cairo and 2 Jakarta. The New Cairo have the big burnthrough laser of the Berlin, but no other guns. And you have to have a minimum of 2. They are however faster than the bigger cuisers, able to keep up with the figates of the fleet. The Jakarta are defensive frigates, kept within 4" of other friendly ships they add a bonus to point defence. Not sure these will see much use but we'll see as I play more games.

Rounding off:

 

Adding in another Toulon and a New Orleans. I have 4 frigates left to paint and have now decided how to assemble these. You may have noticed the coloured bead around the flight stands. I picked this up from the DFC facebook group as a quick and cheap way to signify your battlegroups. Some people have painted colours on the bases but I find the beads much easier and £1.50 for 100 beads i'm well covered!

Last off: 

 

I ordered these 2 Imperial Assault models in November but due to me not realising 1 was a pre-order, I didn't receive them until January...

So, on the left is my second Luke Skywalker. This version being the Jedi version from later in the original trilogy. The one on the right is the Inquisitor from the Rebels tv series. Both weren't that much fun to paint as they are mostly black but they were quick paint jobs!

Dirty Deeds, Beep Boop Beep!

Yeah, I win best title ever!

And below is the reason I had that in my head for days on end...

 

C3PO and R2-D2! C3PO was a 5 minute paint job, but R2, with all the white took a bit longer. Think he looks ok! Beep Boop Beep!

Continuing to power through the Imperial Assault stuff:

 

Han Solo and Davith Elso. I think I've managed to get Han as close to he looks in the films. Davith is one of 2 heroes that come in the Bespin Gambit expansion. Another dude with a light saber!

Continuing with the Bespin Gambit: 

 

Wing Guard! I'd never really noticed these in the film until I'd painted them and then watched it again, and there they are, loads of them! These were fun to paint, but I'm still undecided how to paint the other 3 that come in the set. I want to do them as elite but am unsure how to signify this. I may do a gold ring aroung the hats, or gold cuffs. I'm sure I'll decide as I paint them... 

Crikey! Up to date!

Well, that was a productive month! Almost entirely up to date now with my Imperial Assault stuff. Its only a slow trickle of stuff arriving through the post that is left to paint. This is probably for the best as Dropfleet is still looming and most of the group seem to think we're going to be painting this until the end of time....

So, here's the Imperials:

 

I've got over my dislike of painting white. Well, not really but I've got a system that works! Good job really, I thought I'd painted all the Storrmtroopers I'd ever have to do, and then Fantasy Flight announced the next expansion which contains more of them.... The orange shoulder pads are my Elite troops, led by Kayn Somos.

Up next: 

 

Scum! Some more Tusken Raiders and Boba Fett. Boba turned out to be a weird paint job. Red, blue, green and yellow all on 1 model! I'd never noticed how bonkers his outfit is until I'd googled it!

Finally: 

 

Rebels! Chewbacca, Rebel Sabateurs, Rebel Smuggler,  Echo Base Troopers and 2 more heroes, Saska Teft and Biv Bodhrik. I've really enjoyed painting all these models. Still on the paint table are Han Solo and a Bantha Rider. I accidently went on eBay this morning and found the Bespin Gambit for a price I couldn't turn down, so thats on its way!

I Don't Like Painting White!

I always think a white paint job looks cool, but painting it has always seemed like such a chore! However, having bought Imperial Assault, and knowing I had 9 Stormtroopers to paint, I was going to have to tackle it at some point...

And so here they are, with the rest of my recent paint jobs:

 

As you can see, they don't look bad if you take a poor photo and squint your eyes a bit! I've seen alot of other paint jobs on Stormtroopers and a lot of people tend to do a dark wash on them. For me the films show them as very shiny white, and that is what I've gone for. The middle guy is General Sorin, who took about half an hour to paint. And the final 3 are Snowtroopers. I didn't really enjoy painting these either, but I think they look ok!

Next up: 

 

Wampas and Tusken Raiders. Lots of washes and drybrushing involved with these. Looking forward to stomping on the Heroes with the Wampas!

 

 

Loku Kanoloa and SC2-M Repulsor Tank! I'd been putting off painting Loku as he looked like a complicated model to paint, but, as it turns out, he isn't! The hardest part was trying to get the Mon Cala skin right. Started with brown, washed and then drybrushed up adding orange into the mix and I'm quite pleased with the result!

The tank didn't take much doing but I'm looking forward to giving it a run out. I'm sure it'll cause more panic than it will deal out in damage!

And finally:

 

American Cival War 6mm buildings! We paid our annual pilgrimage to Joy of 6, and this time came away with more than just the taste of a bacon sandwich in our mouths. These great little buildings are Leven Miniatures resin sculpts. Very nice for £2.50 each! I have another 2 to paint which I try will do before our next ACW game.

Preparing For War!

Recently we bought Warlords Glory Hallelujah!, hoping it would give us some motivation to paint and play with the 6mm ACW models we all have in varying states of readiness.

A nice book, which will help me personally as I know very little about this period. As a group it will give us some pre-written scenarios for us to play. As a result we picked one of the smaller battles to give us a target to aim for to start with. As there are 2 of us per side, we've then split the 2 armies in half again so that none of us have too much to prepare!

So here are a few of my recently painted additions:

 

This may look odd, but all will become clear below! 

 

See! Makes a regular sized unit into a large unit! I may end up doing more of these if we progress further into bigger games as the Confederate forces appear to have a few large units.

Everything I've painted since returning from holiday adds up to this: 

 

A whole new Brigade! I've now got the painting of these down to about an hour per stand! The longest time is waiting for the PVA to dry once they are based...

Almost the complete force:

 

I have one more command stand to paint, and the comedy banner I made will be reduced in size to a normal command banner... And that's my part of the Confederate army for the Battle of Wilson Creek complete!

Now, I know Matt has been painting, I wonder if either of the other 2 have... 

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Paranormal Exterminators!

Hang on, that doesn't sound right!

"If there's something strange,

In your neighbourhood,

Who ya gonna call?

Paranormal Exterminators!"

Obviously Ghostbusters, these were a Secret Santa present that I've just got round to painting:

 

Crooked Dice models that were fun to paint and nothing too complicated. 

 

I thought they might take ages to do but when I actually sat down and looked in detail at the Ghostbusters film backpacks and outfits, there isn't anything to them really! Still, this means it wasn't a chore to paint them and I think they look ok.

I'll be using them with the 7TV ruleset, which I'm yet to play with but from what I've heard its good fun. Which is the whole point!

Short update!

Geddit! Dwarves!

Anyway... just an update on how the rebasing is going with the stunty guys!

First up:

 

Iron Breakers! Or Ironguard as they are known in the Kings of War world. Will always be Iron Breakers to me though. Tough unit which I enjoy using. I have another 7 left and am undecided whether to eBay them or keep them in case I fancy making another unit. I feel they may be eBayed as I already have a unit of Hammerers that are also Ironguard, and there are a number of companies out there these days that make some lovely Dwarf models. So if I ever fancy another unit, this may be the way I go.

And:

 

What Dwarf army is complete without an excess of large guns?! A second cannon, an organ gun and a flame cannon. I also discovered in my cupboard another organ gun I'd forgotten I'd bought at some point! Everyone was really pleased when I told them about that...

Next up will be sorting out a regiment of Thunderers. I've bought another 2 classic thunderer models off eBay which means I can make them into a regiment, rather than just a troop.

I've also completed painting everything I had left to do from my Dropzone UCM, but as it was mostly stuff I've already painted from the second starter set, I couldn't be bothered to take pictures! I've slogged away to get these up to date as it means I can buy new stuff and not worry about a paint queue, and also Dropfleet is somewhere on the horizon...

A Long Time Ago...

...on a painting table not so far away!

Here are my Imperial Assault miniatures currently painted. I painted most of these in about a week long painting frenzy. Not sure what happened, I just got my paint on! I think some of it was down to the fact that there isn't much repetitive painting.

First up:

The Heroes! Really enjoyed painting these, as i said with them all being individuals. I'm trying to get all the Heroes done before we begin the next campaign.

And next:

Forces of the Rebellion! The Wookies were easy to paint with just a wash and a drybrush involved. The troopers were a little complex with the white helmets. My dislike of painting white is the main reason you won't see any Storm Troopers yet!

Evil stuff:

Probe droids, Hunter Killers and IG-88. All of these were a doddle to paint being mostly just a dryrushfest. With these and the other models I've tried to signify Elite models by a more complex paint job. So as you can see the elite Droid and Hunter Killers have some golden panels. Not much but will hopefully make them stand out a bit.

Next, Scum:

Again I've tried to show elite Trandoshans by giving them different skin (scales?!) tones and clothing. The other models are Dengar and some Hired Guns!

Roar:

Nexu! I haven't painted one of these as an Elite yet so may go back and add something to one of them, but haven't decided what yet.

The Imperials:

 

Vader, Royal Guard with Champion and Imperial Officers. The only way I could think to signify Elite Royal Guard was to paint their pointy sticks gold... Each Officer has a different colour uniform which involved alot of googling to ensure they are correct! Vader was a bit dull to paint for the importance of the character but theres not a lot you can do with black on black, shaded black and highlighted black...

Lots still to paint, mostly those bleedin Storm Troopers. I'll tackle those when I'm in the right frame of mind... 

Err...Happy New Year!

Hello there! Its been a while!

I have been busy though, honest! Since my last post we've moved house again and I finally have my own dedicated gaming room. The bridging part of my new table works well, just some fine tuning needed but we now have an 8' x 4' table.

So, here's an update on some of my painting progress since the turn of the year. There's no specific posts as I can't remember whats newly painted or not!

First up, my dropzone force to date:

 

There's a couple of new things in there. 2 Archangels, another 2 Raven dropships, another 2 Condor dropships, another 3 Sabre tanks and another 3 Rapier tanks. Most of this comes from the second starter set I got cheap off ebay and fills out my force nicely giving me lots of options depending on who I'm going to be playing.

I now how just over 2000 points worth, with a few more bits from the starter set to finish. I want to get as close to zero unpainted models as I can before I buy any more so I don't fall behind with it all! What with Dropfleet arrivng in a couple of months that could easily happen!

Next up are these fellows:

 

Yay! Dwarves! Not so much painting involved, mostly rebasing to fit in with the Kings of War way of doing things. I had been motoring rebasing these but then I started to get sand blindness or PVA poisoning or something and had to move on to another project for a bit...

We've played a few games now and I'm starting to get the hang of how to use my Dwarves in KoW. Not too different from Warhammer but a couple of new additions have added some nice new options to the usual Dwarf gaming style. The berzerker on a brock is currently a personal favourite. Who wouldn't love a loony on a giant badger!

 

There's also a Lord of an even bigger badger which I've yet to unleash. The rebasing job has also enabled me to expand my existing force quite nicely. A couple of ebay purchases will help me get full use of all the models I have so there will only be a couple spare hopefully. 

 

So there we are for now. I'm going to try not to be as long before my next post. Mostly because I bought Imperial Assault and went on a massive paint-a-thon to show!