Release the crazies!!

So....

what a weird month its been, I've actually ran out of paint for the terrain that I've been doing so it was a trip to the shop this evening to pick up some more but I'm starting to replace my normal GW paints with Vallejo paints as they are alot cheaper and after chit-chatting to Dave from the Burton club its the same stuff that I used to paint with back in the day!

Throw the leaked pictures of the necrons into the mix, and that Dreadfleet is STILL available to buy, when Space Hulk had sold out in the equivalent time previously it doesn't bode well, my local gaming store has a huge pile of them! But I've no doubt that the necrons will sell as good as the dark eldar, and I've still got my old school ones kicking around that I'll get some pics taken of at some point.

the other werid thing is that I've actually made a differance to the "hobby" by backing a project by dreamforge games, remember....

Well I spotted a post on his blog and decided to take the plunge and pledge some money in exchange for a "reward" if the project ever hit it target, and its managed to hit the target well ahead of the target date so I'm now quite excited to see the project pick up speed and get my reward in my hands.

If you wanna take part its open for the next 25 days:

www.kickstarter.com project-eisenkern-32mm-miniatures
 

So with the board on hold I picked up a couple of 1/48 kits to use as scatter type terrain and keep with the rocket base theme, the first one is a cool looking VW beetle, I knew that the Germans had something to do with this but after a bit of online reading I was surprised to find out that they did a part-payment scheme for normal people to buy one!

I was tempted to make it a wreck but it looks so cool!
















the other kit that I picked up was a refueling truck (blogger is faffing me about with the pics!)



So some detail of the sprues, I've not touched a "proper" model kit for years and this bought back floods of memories!

so once I've got that banged together which shouldn't be too long I've got Coops to airbrush the main bodies of the models all I'll have to do is the additional bits, 

So with the additional Celts that I picked up from the Derby show I figured that I might as well crack on with them to try and make an impact on the "pledge" for this month so in the "usual" Anton manner I stuck all 120 of them together and went on a spray-a-thon I wanted to use all the British bits to make a semi-naked unit that could act as champions/berzerkers and after a couple of nights work I'd managed to get them to the point of finishing off the bases and ready for the anti-shine,

Close up of the crazies...

and whilst that lot is waiting for some basing action, I decided to crack on with another unit of normal guys... 

all I need to do with these is the copper bits on the armour and the odd tattoo on the half naked chaps and they'll be ready for the dip, its quite scarey how fast you can paint models with that stuff, 64 models in a week and a half? not bad!

and once the celts are done the saga vikings are ready to rock, I might dip these as well just to save time.

So with  about 2 weeks before the end of the month I need to step up the pace to break even..

In a nutshell I need to do 138 Celts and finish the terrain to break even! IF I manage this which would be truly mental it'll push me over 1000 models painted this year! Which is double what I painted last year!



So stay tuned.... Can I achieve this mental goal, right I'm off to paint!!

Secrets of the third reich.... making the club gaming board part 3

So after a bit of a slow start I've got my terrain making head on and got the following lot done,

so the actual ramp, 3 V1's, the concrete walls and the tank traps, 

nice and simple nothing too fancy, 

just some flock to put on the bases, and these are done

the concrete walls, again nothing too hard lots of dry brushing, I didn't bother doing the metal on the corners as that would make it look to sci-fi

and the launch ramp, I didn't want to go OTT with the flock but I'm tempted to put some more on in a different shade, and maybe a small tree, but from a wargaming proof angle that'll last about 2 sessions!

So the next lot, three lots of ruins, and a reinforced  bunker, I'll put some of the plastic pallets on the ruins once there dry, which might be a while with the amount of no more nails and PVA that's on this lot!

so just some close ups, should be enough room for infantry to stand in, 

and one of the two hangers that are going to be on the board, I've decided to leave them open so that units can hide in there ready for an ambush

So once that lots done, which shouldn't take too long as again it'll be dry brush central, I'll have a finial batch of terrain and that'll finish off the board nicely!

Secrets of the third reich.... making the club gaming board part 2

So as normal I've gone straight into hardcore scenery making mode, something that I've not done for a long time, maybe it was the casting of the hurst arts molds that sent me over the edge??

Well so far this is what I've managed to do...

So a aerial view of the board, the green mat is just so that I can see what space the bits will fill, a few bits of scatter cover terrain and its about there, 

I mulled over how to base the tank traps and figured a nice foot print would be needed so that it really slowed them down gaming wise and from a modelling perspective it would be easy to paint up and still look cool, 

The V1 Prep/launch area, the walls are for a sci-fi range but look perfect for this, 

and the actual ramp, taking a fair old bit of the board up and blocking a huge amount of line of sight this will dominate the board but give neither side the edge as you can't get models on it unless you run up the ramp!

one of the two "ok" casted V1's in transport mode

a very rough mock-up of a hanger, I'd gone for a "modern" day feel with the sloped concrete sides, but I've a bit of tweaking to do with the construction, I'm in two minds about the roof, a simple piece of wood/plastic card with some filler or just leave it open?

one of the generic ruins, after all the RAF would be having a pop now and then,

and the V2 that I've already done, with some blast walls around it, I'm struggling to find a transport rig for this, so I might on have this ready to launch,

I've still some other bits to do, I've another two MDF boards cut out for two more hangers but not too sure on that maybe one more would do it? A fuel silo of some description and some more ruins/rubble for difficult ground,

do you think its enough? or should there be more??

Secrets of the third reich.... Derby GT & show review

So the GT has come and gone and the initial 59 day run up to the event has been well... eventful!!

So I managed to....

Learn the rules & teach half a dozen people at the same time how to play!

Spencer, Stef, Ross & Daz all picking up armies for SOTR just from watching me bumble my way through the rules!

Sorting out & painting my army to a fairly reasonable standard, chopped and changed it various times so that I ended up painting all of my British!

Meeting a nice bunch of chaps from Portal Wargaming namely Dave, Ian & a mental chap called Amos and looking forward to the SOTR campaign that starts in November.

Meeting Phil who kept me company on the drive back and forth to Derby and he ended up finishing 3rd, Pretty damm good for some one who only really saw me running Darrell through a game around 3/4 weeks ago!


Doing fairly reasonable at the GT with 8th place out of 12 scoring 50 points with two wins, two losses and one draw, but the real moment of pride for me was picking up the baton of honor (even though I didn't hear my name being called out until everyone looked at me!)

The Baton was based on army design, over all painting of the army, sportsmanship and attitude over the weekend, and a couple of the judges seemed to like the objective markers and the extra effort that I'd made for the alien tech mission.

So well chuffed with this, I'll put it along side the sportsman award from the 2010 warmachine GT.

The tables that the MDK boys had bought down from sunny Manchester where superb..

Florence South

Florence North

Kursk

 Bastogne

Paris

Cairo

I didn't get a chance to take any snaps of the actual armies as I was too interesting in food on the Saturday and Mr Upton swung by to pay me a visit on the Sunday so we were whaffing shite as always!

A couple of guys were taking pictures so when they go up on the SOTR forum I'll put a link over, Overall the GT was very well ran and a very friendly atmosphere was present though out there was some quite tense moments but nothing that actually spoilt the weekend (unlike the warmachine one)

I also got to meet Wendy & Andy from westwind and as people go these pair were genuinely really nice people! (unlike some of the miserable fuckers that I've meet on my travels!) We went for a meal on the Saturday night which was arranged by Wendy and that was the cherry on the cake for me as I got to chat to other people I hadn't actually played against and talked about the gaming industry as a whole & parenting tips! and some the usual drinking stories that I come out with...

Army list wise I was quite happy with how it performed overall, and a few school boy errors did hinder my chances but I'd slipped into "40K" mode and forgot about cover and only seeing 2" through it or about the alternative actions and leaving paddy and his boys exposed to a counter charge from wolf runners that spanked there naughty MI-13 bottoms!

I'm going to make a big effort to go next year and see if I can bring some of the "Cats" to represent.

So the actual show its self...

First time I'd been to Derby and the venue was pretty good lots of natural light in the trader areas which was a welcome change from others that I've been to, vendor wise it was more historical rather than sci-fi but that wasn't a huge issue for me personally, we'd managed to get in early on both days so on the Sunday I snapped this little lot..

Celts up against Romans

same table different view

operation squad

other side

no idea but the terrain was superb!

hand built church!

cool looking town square with the horses around the "thingy"

some more of the same table

Ansty stall, up and coming pirate ships, the man-o-war was about £70 which wasn't  bad personally!

close up of the sloop?

the man-o-war

no idea.

still no idea

10mm ww2 desert

some of the traders

some more

more upstairs!

and even more!!

ACW 6mm

insane painting on this lot!

no idea?

still no idea??

lots of hidden deployment ;)

these guys like the square formations!

err... pass?

and Phil smirking inside as some chap tries to sell him what can only be described as the worst cast buildings I've ever seen!

so I'd done quite well on the Saturday only picking up a copy of Saga from gripping beast even though they didn't have my pre-order sorted so they made one up whilst I was playing my second game and boo-hiss I'm missing a blister with 8 chaps in.

But on the Sunday my wallet was well and truly opened and I did go a little OTT at Total System Scenic and picked up loads of bits for the V1 / V2 launch site board, and after a little messing around with what I got its gonna look pretty cool... But I'll show you pictures another time.

I also managed to pick up a couple of V1's that are in transport mode, but after a but of a closer inspection its a copy of the plastic one that I picked up the other week so size wise spot one, casting quality is "ok"

and then Phil wanted to look at the bring and buy, now normally I don't see anything that I like the look of/need and to be honest most of it is utter tosh! but I managed to spot a potential deal but was being bocked out by two little girls looking at the "pretty" horses! after some evil whispering from Mr Upton saying I needed more so that I could field at least 3 divisions for hail Cesar and in the end I succumbed to his whispers and a nice chap passed me the bits that I was looking at and I picked up 2 boxes of Celt cavalry, 2 boxes of Celt warriors and 2 boxes of ancient British all made by warlord for a bargain price of £47! so it worked out buy one get one free!

so with the Pledge being reset for October and I was quite determined NOT to buy any thing apart from Saga its all gone tits up with the Celts (again) so I've a whopping 165 models to get though.

So I'll continue to work on the club board and once that's done I'll then make an effort to get the Celts started, they'll  be getting the dip treatment, the Vikings for Saga will be the "normal" Anton painting, and that means the plague reaper will be put on the back burner.

So watch this space for the SOTR board and some hardcore production line Celt assembly/painting/dipping!