Project Overengineered!

Many moons ago, our need for a new gaming area happened. You can read about that way back at the beginning of my blog if you're that bored!

To save you that, I'll explain. I created for myself a couple of 3'x4' gaming tables on legs. This enabled our little gaming group, which consisted of 3 of us at the time, to have a 6'x4' table to game on.

Things have moved on however! There are now 5 of us gaming regularly, and this month my other half and myself move into a new house. With all the excitement that comes with that, it now means I'll have my own dedicated gaming room!

As a result, and the gaming room being a decent size enabling me to have a bigger gaming table I today created this:

It's the smaller bit on the right! This is a 2'x4' section which, with some nuts and bolts, and hoping I've drilled all the holes in the right places, will form a bridge between the original 2 boards creating an 8'x4' table.

This will give our group the ability to play 2 different games in a night on 4'x4' halves, or 1 big gaming using the whole length! Our annual Xmas gaming day will hopefully be the first use of this, with a 2000 points a side Bolt Action game taking place.

This is all based on my diy skills and it not falling apart but I think I've overdone the construction a bit anyway!

Remember Flames of War?!

Remember it? From the olden days!

Well, hold on to your hats!

Boom!

British rifle platoon command and 2 squads! It doesn't look like much but now these are finished it makes my British rile company a legal army.

And up next:

Shermans! I enjoyed doing these as I have fewer tanks to paint for this force for now, so I put a bit more effort into them. They aren't the best models money can buy, being from the plastic starter set Battlefront do but they look ok!

This brings the army up to about 950 points. Once I've finished the riflemen and Hurricane it takes me to just under 1200 points. Best crack on then!

That's just war!

Apparently, when I'm trying to prove a point, I can be quite productive!

Let me explain. When we started the 6mm ACW project, the plan was for us all to paint a few bits and have a game to see how it works. We all painted roughly the same amount, apart from Kieron, who furiously painted to ensure the Union side had the numerical advantage...

When challenged about this, he pointed out that armies weren't always equal,  and anyway, that's just war!

So here we are. Wes and I have been in discussions ever since that night to ensure that next time we played, we'd have the advantage. And what better way to do that than to paint everything I own!

So here it all is:

Infantry! These were the main slog, but by the end I'd got the whole painting process for a unit down to about half an hour. The longest part was waiting for the pva glue to dry when basing!

Cavalry! Clippety clop!

Artillery! And commanders!

The army as a whole! The banner at the front was the last thing I did. Wes requested I added the "Dickheads!". I think it works quite nicely! And nobody can claim there's anything wrong as I have blogged about it!

And anyway, that's just war!

Stage 1 complete!

Woo hoo! Basic Impetus force completed! I'm glad I picked Carthaginians as my army, the choice of units will keep it interesting to paint I hope. The final unit in my basic force is this:

Carthaginian medium cavalry! More of these will be purchased as I start to expand my force as Carthaginian armies tended to be cavalry heavy. I may even do a unit containing Hannibal! And no, not the one from the A-Team...

Next off the production line:

My favourite WW2 tank, the Cromwell! Don't know why I like this tank so much, I just do! It's also a bit different in games of Bolt Action as it can fire high explosive rounds, so is better against infantry than a lot of other tanks. Really enjoyed painting this as well.

I look forward to using this so must now get on and paint some more British infantry to go with it!

Stomp stomp smash!

So the trip to Derby World came and went. I intended on sticking to a budget of about £20 and only buying stuff that I needed for current projects. In the end I came away about £90 lighter with a pile of stuff. Oops!

The extra bits I picked up were bargains I couldn't really turn down. A Cromwell tank for my Bolt Action British for £12 and a couple of 4ground buildings I'd had my eye on. These won't be assembled until we've moved house though so will be packed away for now.

Anyway, on to finished stuff! First up:

 

My second unit of Punic Infantry! I haven't found a Xyston model that I've not enjoyed painting yet. I had contemplated the new Forged In Battle models but having seen them they don't compare, so will just use them to fill any gaps in the range that Xyston may have.

And then onto this, which turned out to be one of my favourite models I've ever done:

 

Elephants! Originally I was only going to put one on a base, but I'm glad I decided against being tight and putting two on!

 

How cool do they look?!

 

Only one more unit to do and then my Basic Impetus force is complete! Then I will add units as I want to, and expand the units I've already completed where I am able.

Gaining Impetus!

Apologies for the obvious blog title but once its in your head it won't get out!

In a monumental change of tack, and even earning me a massive "F*** off!" from Kieron, I've decided to crack on and get my Carthaginians up to Basic Impetus level of completedness. I'd forgotten how nice the models are to paint, and also how sharp the spears/javelins can be...

So here is my first off the production line:

 

My second unit of Numidian light cavalry! I made a bit of an arse pinning the middle guy to his horse, trying to wipe off excess superglue with tissue, then trying to burn off the tissue that was stuck in the superglue and not realising that the melting point of the metal was just above butter... So he now has stump and a club foot! But hey, he doesn't need his legs when he's on a horse right?!

Next up these:

My second unit of Gallic Infantry! These are alot of fun to paint due to each model wearing different colour clothing. It does make them a bit more time consuming but the unit looks very snazzy!

Last of all this young man:

 

This guy will be used to represent my overall commander. I mainly did this to remind myself how I'd painted the Punic Infantry as I hadn't written it down anywhere. Managed to surprise myself with my memory!

And below is all my completed units to date:

 

I have another unit of Punic Infantry, some heavy cavalry and an elephant to complete. However, some extra bits are required for 2 of these units which will hopefully be purchased next weekend at Derby World.

Last but not least, and to break things up a bit, I painted these:

 

Another 4 UCM Wolverines! These are cheap, handy little buggies that can be equipped with a mixture of either missile pods for hunting armour, or extra AA, which upsets everyone no end! It also means I can field a squad of 4,6 or 8, or 2 squads of 4 depending on what mood I'm in. They are also scouts, so are good for spotting and extending sphere of influence. Lovely!

Fzzzap!

Kieron might not want to look at this...

These are my new UCM dropzone toys:

Scimitars! These are heavy tanks, 2 damage points each and an infinite range weapon, even when countermeasured! The other bonus is that any roll of 6 to hit, automatically does 2 damage to the target without having to make a damage roll! Thats enough to take out Kierons new commander in one go if I get lucky... If thats not enough a normal hit is energy 10... All I need to do now is assemble and paint another Condor dropship to deliver them in.

In other news, the new King of War rulebook is here! We've all gone for the £10 copy, which is in my opinion exactly what you want from a rulebook. Rules and armylists in a handy sized book! I wasn't originally planning on rebasing my Dwarf army, but now that the Evil Empire (GW) have completely screwed the Warhammer world up, I may just rebase them! If I can work out which box I've packed them in...