End of January already!!

well that month went past quick!!!

and unexpected it was a race to the finsh....

with the bits that I picked up from Ebay for next to nothing it scuttled my chances of finishing on a postive number unless I pulled my finger from my arse and cracked on!

So the chaos hounds that I've had sitting on my painting table for about 6 months!! 

I was talking to Coop's the other week about last years painted/bought numbers and quite rightly he pointed out that I'd not actually reduced the amount of unpainted figures that I've got kicking around just stayed on top of what I'm buying which I think is a bloody good point so I'm now making an effort to finish off those odds and sods that I've never been arsed to do!! 

So I'm currently chipping away at the nurgle baneblade and hopefully will be doing some of my back log from old armies and the like.... (well that the plan!)

But I need to maintain focus and spotting a load of bits on ebay for No-Go-Zone doesn't help! I managed to pick up the rule book and the minitures for a steal!

and I cranked out the "law" to tip me over the edge for my pledge.

Now I'll be honest the models are not in the warmachine/GW league but as figures go these were a nice change to paint, and the "chaos" models are going to be just as fun!

I mentioned it to one of the chaps at the club on Thursday and he'd also picked up the rule book so once we can get a game in I'll do the usual "First Look" post and see what people think.

Meanwhile this is the rest of the stuff that I got from Brittanna mintures the other week, I forgot to take pictures of them "naked" but once there painted up they should look nice.

and the ghouls have arrived for the mordhiem gang so I'll blast these out when I'm not entertaining the G.C.!

So the pledge...

Bought - 43
Painted - 44

nice and tight eh... ;)

KGN - Get on the supply train....

So my new bits for KGN started to arrive earlier this week and this is some of what I got...

So a very shiny SdKfv 252 with ammo trailer, the detail on this model is outstanding!! it has so many delicate pieces that come with it I'd say its more for display or diorama rather than wargaming.

So Hanz the medic as a size comparison,

I thought it looked a bit small personally but after some google-fu....

its pretty much bang on! 

the trailer unit, the really nice thing about this kit is that you have the options of having the door opened or closed and the detail inside is lovely, but in the usual "Anton" way I closed the doors.

The other bit that I got was from the Britannia miniatures line which is now been taken over by Grubby Tanks,

So a horse and cart, some thing that sums up the german army quite well as most pictures that you see they used alot of horse's to drag there kit around it wasn't all halftracks and prime movers.

Again Hanz jumping in on the picture cheeky little monkey!

the other side

and the two next to each other as scale/size guide.

So the links to the relevant websites,
www.milicast.com 
/www.grubbytanks.com

The customer service from both places was great, the milicast order arriving far quicker than I expected, and the Grubby Tanks order having a hand written note apologising for the delay!

So all I need to to is splash some paint on these and they'll be ready to be shot up by the RAF!

Mordhiem Crew - Armand's Animators

Mordhiem!!!

Yep its another "blast from the past" I've been "invited" into a up and coming Mordhiem Campaign at the Leicester Phat Cats, and after quite a bit of chin scratching I decided to wander down the undead route.

The initial plan was to pick up bits off ebay as they tend to go quite cheap now days, well that was until GW announced with there new sales tactic of two weeks notice that Vampire Counts are being re-released... Humm well that put a big hole in my plan as the price for undead went through the roof.

But I held out to see what shiney new stuff was going to be release and a couple of bits took my fancy but nothing usable in mordhiem.

A flying undead alter thingy!

Don't think I'd be able to get away with that as being a mount for my Vampire ;)

So onto the Crew:

Vampire - Sword & Mace
Necromancer - Bow, Sword & Spell to be rolled at the first game
Dreg #1 - Mace
Dreg #2 - Mace
Dreg #3 - Guess what?? Mace!

Henchmen Ghouls - 3
Henchmen Ghouls - 3

and that lot comes to 497

The vampire, necromancer & ghouls were dead easy to choose the models for, but the dregs not so easy, needed to be human type models but scum looking guys?

so after a bit of chit chat with my various muse's down the local shop empire flagellants were the way forward!

So the hero's of the warband

The three dreg's I decided not to bother converting them just used them straight out my bits box! 

the newish plastic necromancer

and the big man Armand, I managed to get old of the last metal one in the shop for a whopping £7 but looking on the GW website the "finecast" version is £14.50! 

I wasn't too sure what colour to do the winged arm, and in the end I decided to make red my connecting colour.

So just waiting for the ghouls to come in the post I looked at the GW ones and didn't really like them....

but the mantic ones....

are much better personally...

so if they are anything like the zombies that I got last year these will be a doddle to paint up!

And talking about paint I've now an ebay shop selling Vallejo Model Color as well as army painter products, go have a look ;)

G.C. Gaming Supplies

Cutlass Crew & Trollbloods Kriel

Well Its been a real slow month painting wise so far,

With being sucked into the MMO world of starwars The Old Republic and deciding to take the plunge and start up an ebay shop supplying paint and the like time has been precious recently.

I've been making some headway into the trollbloods that I got at the end of last year and a friend gave me a load of his stuff now he's found a new "toy" to play with ;)

so the champions unit,

I've the UA to paint up to go with these guys and combining that with the champion hero that I did as my tester model its a filthy unit!

 bung some stone scribes behind them maxed out on focus and the champions become armour 18 with P&S 12 once I get the UA done for these!

so the trolls are coming along nicely and once I've stripped the bits that I've been given I'll have quite a bit to play about with!

So with Nick's Cutlass Campaign about to kick off this week at the club and spurred on by Coopers post on his blog ( the mountain of metal ) with his dipped pirate girls which look really nice...

So I figured I'd better get me ass into gear and splash some paint on the Orc's that I picked up at salute last year, 
 

So the Admiral and his three orc veterans armed to the teeth and ready to go, Just a coat of anti-shine as I've a feeling that they'll be spending most of the game lying down due to injuries.

I've another three on the way from black scorpion miniatures and it looks like he's moving over to resin for his models so I'm looking forward to comparing the cast quality with the metal ones above.

The crew that I'm going to run with for the campaign is...

Admiral:
Cutlass, Dagger, Parrot

Orc Vet #1:
2 Cutlass, Dagger

Orc Vet #2:
Cutlass, Dagger, Duelling Pistol


Orc Vet #3:
Axe, Dagger, Duelling Pistol

Orc #1:
Cutlass, Dagger, Ships Pistol


Orc #2:
Cutlass, Dagger, Ships Pistol


Orc #2:
Cutlass, Dagger, Ships Pistol

and that lot rolls in at $496, now I'm expecting to recruit the goblins as the campaign goes on, with the few games that I've played so far recruiting orc's & vets is quite rare hence so many to start with.

Kampfgruppe Normandy, Hold the line!!!!

With the Previous game of KGN late last year myself and Nick decided to sort out another game, Its was still going to be an all German training misson...

I used the Infantry company list consisting of:

Battalion HQ

Infantry Platoon
88 Support
HMG Support
Stug Platoon upgraded to "G"'s
Tiger 1 Support
Forward Observer with 2 dedicated 105's

Nick Rolled in with:

Panther Platoon
Jagpanther
King Tiger
Infantry Platoon

I think that was it? not too sure as none of his reserves came on!

After some further reading as a Infantry army I could opt to declare a defence battle so I'm entitled to by defences for the army, and decided to dig in the 88 & the tiger.

The mission was hold the line and in a nutshell I had to stop Nick capturing the two objectives on my side of the table or breaking my moral limit.

So with the infantry set up and hugging cover I awaited the big cats to roll on....

and they rolled in well!! I have two units on covering fire, and neither of them spotted the king tiger and the dug in tiger paid the price!

The start of the game,

the 88 being eye'd up by a panther

lots of running infantry.... 

the 88 with a cracking shot, but it bounced off the front of the panther, much to Nick's delight! through out the game the 88 made Nick sweat quite a bit even though it didn't do a great deal in my eyes.

infantry waiting for the big cat to get closer... 

Finally the 88 hits & kills its first armoured target! 

and a panzerfaust armed infantry manages to take out another!

so its looking quite sweet, but it could all go wrong?

The forward observer brings the 105's bang in between the two panthers suppressing them both and Nick only has the Jagpanther & the king mooching about on the table,

but the Jagpanther pops the dug in 88 and Nick gets his second kill of the game,

whilst the infantry go on Safari... 

and using the hedge rows as cover sprint to keep up with the armour.... 

and out of no where the reserves roll on, Stug-tastic!

neither of our reserves had come on by turn 4, and this was a lucky break for me as I'd only got hand held anti tank running about,

So the King tiger has got to be the luckiest tank in the world!

In one turn it survived two infantry squads shooting at it with panzerfaust's, being suppressed my the command team, and all three StuG's either failing to spot it or missing it all together!! I rolled quite a few 1's!

and due to the time we called it there, and I won by a couple of moral points.

as we were still stumbling our way though the system not that many questions came up but as we start to understand more the "shopping" list gets bigger!

so the shopping list...

222 armoured car for a recce platoon
Opel radio truck
Kublewagon & crew
Horse drawn supply cart
Schwimmwagen with crew
2 panzerchreck teams
75mm infantry gun with crew
3 bike messagers
105mm field gun with crew
sniper, officer, NCO

So much for "cutting" back eh!

The hunt is on.... Alternative Necromunda Spyrer's

"if it bleeds we can kill it"

One of the guys at the local club wants to run a campaign, but this one has genuinely got me excited!!

Necromunda is being dusted off...

And the hunters are leaping over the wall ready for the prey...

these are going to be my counts as Spyrers, I did look at the ones on the GW site and about spat my tea all over my desk when I saw the price...

and remembered that I managed to get these from ebay some time last year, as they are a tad small I've gone to town on the bases to increase the height and make the poses look cool.

Since doing these, I was mooching about beasts of war the other day and found a link to these bad boys....

now out of stock... Booo.....

I'm so tempted to order the top two, not too keen on the third one and the last one is now sold out and they are limited to 100 models!

www.predastore.ch

Anyway I'm gonna stop waffling on about them before I crack open the old credit card!!

but before I sign off does anyone have a copy of the Citadel Journal issue 22, that has predator rules in it.....

Why hello 2012....

Well where did 2011 go!

looking back its been a right mash up gaming and painting,

I started historical gaming in the form of Black Powder with the mighty French and Hail Cesar with the sexy celts, some thing that I'd promised myself I'd "never" do but I suppose variety is the spice of life!

I did the usual pilgrimage to Salute and as always picked up a new system in the form of cutlass, and with a campaign that'll be kicking off this month I should really crank out the Orc's for that one!

Painted two flames of war armies in the form of the late British & PAVN and managed to get games of them against the "super" Cooper, hopefully more will follow this year.

Finished off a my epic army that I've had for about 15 years!! and now waiting for Spencer & Will to sort out the campaign that inspired me to dust them off and bring them back from the dead!

Picked up Secrets of the third reich as a gamble system and went to the GT with a complete painted army and walked away with best sportsman as well as meeting some real nice guys and hope to hook up with them this year too, maybe with a new force (if the Japanese get released) and managed to get 3/4 of a themed table done.

Got myself the starter set to bushido and now there are sitting in the the local shop looking all shiney...

Grabbed ANOTHER three systems, Saga from gripping beast and MERC's and enjoyed the Saga game against Lee and with the new expansion coming early this year should be interesting to see if others decide to pick it up, and hopefully get a game of MERC's in with the guys over at Portal gaming in Burton. The third system was Kampfgruppe Normandy and I managed to get a game in against Nick in the week between Chrimbo & new years and even though I got my ass spanked (on the table I might add) it's a well thought out system and I can see alot more of this being played.

and finally....

THE PLEDGE!

This is the second year that I've continued to put my model purchases and what I've painted into a spreadsheet so that I can reduce that mountain on unpainted models that every established games should have!

Bought:

2010       2011

469          1238

Well I think thats the historical gaming bumping that lot up! Thank god there not as expensive as GW eh ;) working it out 695 models were the Might French and the Sexy Celts!

Painted:

2010       2011

513         1245

So once more I managed to paint more than I bought, admitly it was only by the skin of my teeth for 2011, with a positive figure of 7 models!

so this is what tipped it over the edge...

So the remaining bits of the german infantry...

and the test model for my trollblood army,

When I first saw trollbloods back at Salute 2009? I thought that they looked like big orc's and kept with that vision, I've a basic box set that I need to strip and with the odds and sods that I've picked up so far going to build up the force nice and slowly.

I'm going with the Orange heraldry as a nice counter to the green skin as there is so much armour on this champion you carn't really see though.

So marching confidently into 2012 I'll be kicking off my business in the form of GC Gaming Supplies, but more on this another time...


The "Pledge" will roll over into 2012 and I'm confident that I can make it 3 in a row for painting more than I buy, with the pending 6th Ed coming out for 40K the last bits of the chaos should be blasted out and IF its any good then I can foresee the ranks of the dark legions swelling even more!

Assuming I can peel myself away from Starwars I'm hoping to get done:

• Finish off the 20mm Germans for KGN, but no doubt I'll pick up more as well as some US stuff at some point!

• Finish off the SOTR board I've only a few bits left and it's done, just that final effort!

• Finish off the Plague reaper that I picked up from Ebay and try using some MIG pigment weathering powders on it.

and thats it really, if I can get those done before I pick up anything else then I'll be happy!

Also thanks for all the comments/views for last year I'm not one for stats and all that Jazz, but people reading my random whaffle with pictures of my stuff thrown in is bloody cool ;)

and as its kinda still chrimbo/new years day.....