Jon's wargames minis

2012 - end of the world

2012-01-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Among finishing off various projects this year I've decided to launch into something new for 2012......namely some post apocalyptic gaming which seems fitting given the date.

The plan is to build up some skirmish sized gangs/warbands very much in the Hollywood mould road warriors, zombies, mutants and some suitable terrain to go with them. Rules wise I'm thinking of modifying and using GW Lord of the Rings rules which should give me a suitably movie style to my games.

I've decided to set up a second blog to document my (or more likely my lack of) progress rather than clutter up this already rather eclectic blog. There's a link here (although there isn't much there yet)

http://jonswargames.blogspot.com/

Cheers Jon

2011 -thank goodness that's over. Looking forward to 2012

2011-12-31T00:52:00.000-08:00

It would be fair to say 2011 hasn't been the best of years on the hobby front "real" life has found away of making sure that it has intruded on my hobby several times this year.

Putting my back out, financial wobbles with the family budget, risk of redundancy (luckily averted but stressful at the time), my motorbike going to the great scrap yard in the sky, being knocked off my new motorbike by a new driver and the my kids seeming to have endless social functions and clubs to attend.

Have all combined to make for a very poor hobby output this year either enforced, like trying to paint with a bad back, or just plain sapping my enthusiasm for doing anything.

So drawing a blue line under 2011 I'm looking forward to trying to get more hobby time in 2012

I have projects I really should finish off which include

* a few extras for my new AK-47 army (a couple of armoured cars and some air power)

* a soviet Fow infantry battalion (half done just need to finish painting all those pesky infantry)

* a Fow US tank company (half done again more infantry to paint and some tanks)

* Darkest Africa Arabs (mostly done just 24 Askaris and some baggage and one offs like attendants to go)

Projects for which I have all the miniatures but are yet to be assembled or see a lick of paint include

* GWs Dreadfleet game basically I need to assemble and paint the whole thing

* a US taskforce for Rapid Fire to go against my German Kampfgruppe

* an entire Mantic Elf army that I got cheap last year

Projects for which I have nothing but take my fancy at the moment include

* more Darkest Africa Ngoni, Ila, Lozi/Kokolo and British lakes company all looking tempting

* to branch out my Darkest Africa stuff into VSF with steam tanks, dirigibles and fantastic troop types.

* post Apocalyptic skirmish games road warriors, zombies, mutants, survivors and gangs of guys in SM gear (well maybe not the last ones) - talking to my 10 year old about this other day and he reckons this is what I should go for.

So plenty to have a go at in 2012 just got to get stuck in and see how I go.

Cheers and happy new year everyone.

Jon

Christmas goodies

2011-12-25T22:39:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas day is gone the kids have come down from a code 10 mega - hyper to a slightly more controllable code 9 very- hyper. Boxing day is when we traditionally go to my wife's parents for a few days and re-live Christmas day all over again.

Before I find myself cut off from the Internet for a few days I thought I list this years hobby Christmas prezzies. Not a lot this year, due to the financial climate, cuts have been made and like most parents the kids came first. The wife and I stuck mainly to sensible presents like clothes. However I did get a couple of hobby things.

A copy of Chris Peers in the Heart of Africa rules and the accompanying Army list book. Which were needed in light of my plans to do more African colonial stuff in 2012

A couple of Warhammer Ancients Army books El Cid and Spartacus. I don't really play WAB any more but I like the army books which are always a good read and these ones where going cheap as GW had a sale on Warhammer historical stuff before Christmas.

My mum and dad give me a few quid which has been ring fenced for a hobby purchase not sure what yet though as there are so many things I'd like and so little cash these days.

The big present though is a copy of GW Dreadfleet from my in-laws ( I haven't actually had yet but I should get it today). I'm not normally a fan of modern GW but this game called out to me both because I loved Man'O'war back in the day and because it is a one off game with everything in the box (so I won't need to by anything else).

Right I'm off to get ready to spend a few days with the in-laws eating and drinking and watching lots of sub standard christmas telly.

Cheers Jon

Merry Christmas everyone

2011-12-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all get lots of nice hobby related Christmas presents.

Jon

News flash- First sightings of M.O.B.

2011-12-15T10:52:00.001-08:00

NBC news reporter Randy Love reports from Eastham northern Zumata

That large numbers of men and vehicles have been spotted leaving Zumatan army barracks just south of the town of Eastham heading towards the Mbote border. Reports suggest these troops are not Zumatan army but CIA backed Mbote exiles seeking to over throw the communist regime in Mbote and restore former president Bon T'luse to power.

More to follow.........

Some background History of the Zumata-Mbote war of 1974

2011-12-06T00:23:00.000-08:00

While ficking through some old reference books I came across this piece on the Zumatan-Mbote war in the 70s

(above President Bon T'luse)

History of the Zumatan-Mbote war 1974 - Part 1 background - by the Cambridge university press

The area of land that constitutes the present day countries of Zumata, Lumata and Mbote was incorporated in to the British empire in the 1880s and formed into the Npungweland protectorate. The protectorate was split into three provinces based on loosely related tribal groups and roughly conforming to the three countries present day borders. However the borders between the provinces were poorly defined and in many cases resulted in ethnic groups being isolated from their homelands. While under British ruled this wasn't a major issue however, as we will discover, it stored up problems for the future.

After the end of world war two the peoples of Npungweland agitated for independence. The people of Zumata and Lumata through peaceful protest and civil disobedience while in Mbote this agitation took the form of armed insurrection under a man called Bon T'luse. In 1950 the British government agreed to independence in principal and proposed a staged withdraw to put infrastructure and government into place in three provinces before full Independence in 1960. This offer was readily excepted by the peoples of Zumata and Lumata in M'bote however things were different.

Bon T'luse and his followers demanded an immediate withdraw by the British and stepped uptheir insurgence. The British brought in extra troops and for six months a bloody guerrilla war took place before the two sides meet for ceasefire talks. The British didn't have the political will to fight a war in Mbote so despite winning the military struggle they gave into Bon T'luse's demands and withdrew from Mbote six months latter. In Mbotes first free elections Bon T'luse became Mbote's first president.

It didn't take President T'luse long to realise that his policy to drive out the British had backfired. While in Zumata and Lumata the British built roads, dams, airports and other infrastructure in preparation to independence Mbote got nothing from it's former colonial masters. Worse the majority of British and Asian settlers in Mbote, those that had most of the wealth and ran most of the economy, fled to Zumata and Lumata as the British pulled out leaving Mbote in a serious economic mess.

Having burnt his bridges with the British President T'luse looked around for new friends. At this time he came into contact with an organization run by a number of wealthy German businessmen who for various reasons had to leave Germany after the war. These men had money and contacts which soon saw new white settlers coming to Mbote mostly Germans but also some Italians and men from eastern Europe. President T'luse's new friends helped to build up Mbote's economy, train a new army and set up internal state security forces.

By 1961 Mbote, from the outside at least, looked like the success story of Africa. Prosperous, well run, with several modern cities. The truth was somewhat different outside of the cities, where the political elite lived an idyllic life style, many country dwelling people lived a life of near servitude forced to work on large estates of government officials or for European run mining companies. Those Mboten's that spoke out found themselves targets of the state secret police and interned in camps that President T'luse's German friends had help him set up.

Slowly but surely resistance to the government of Mbote grew first in civil disobedience and then to armed conflict. Among the largest of the armed resistance groups was the Mbote Marxist party and it was this group that with help from the soviet union (via North Korea) that opened conventional warfare against the M'bote government in 1965. within two years with the aid of other armed resistance groups the communist forces had overrun most of the countryside and the government was reduced to holding major population centres . The end came swiftly in early 1966 an offensive by communists saw the forces of President T'luse collapse in a matter of weeks. President T'luse, many members of his government and several hundred of his security personnel fled north into Zumata where they were interned.

Meanwhile in Mbote the various resistance groups found themselves in charge of the country. Sadly the only thing that had brought these groups together was a desire to remove President T'luse with that objective achieved the alliance fell apart and two years of bloody civil war ensued. In 1968 the Communists emerged victorious and started rebuilding the shattered country of M'bote with soviet help.

Independence had gone much more smoothly in both Zumata and Lumata with Britain presiding over free elections in both countries before withdrawing. In both Zumata and Lumata Britain had left constitutional monarchies, it must be pointed out though that the Royalty of both countries was far more influential on government policy than that of the British royal family, based on the British model.

In 1965 Zumata elected a new prime minster Dr Kenko Gold young and ambitious he was the toast of Zumatan politics. Dr Gold's political capital rose to new levels after he was forced to deal with the aftermath of a tragic accident in 1968 when the entire Zumatan royal family where wiped save for infant prince Ina l'toftruble. Prime minster Gold lead the country in mourning before selfless declaring himself regent for the baby prince vowing to rule Zumata until the young prince was old enough to rule himself.

During the two years of civil war in Mbote following the over throw of President T'luse Zumata had taken the opportunity to occupy several disputed areas on the Zumatan-Mbote border. After the communists in Mbote had finally established themselves in power and felt secure enough they lobbed the UN for the return of these areas. The UN was unable to resolve these issues which weren't helped by several colonial era British maps and treaties none of which agreed on the correct boundaries between the two countries. in 1970 several armed clashes took place along the border resulting in the deployment of UN peace keepers to the area.

In 1972 a communist inspired uprising took place in Lumata resulting a bloody civil war (one that the communists would finally win in 1976). Prime minister Gold of Zumata was concerned about the communist threat to his country as well as the on going border disputes with Mbote decided to act. His first act was to appeal to Britain, with whom Zumata had continued to enjoy a good relationship with post independence, for military aid in the form of modern military hardware and training.

Secondly he visited former president T'luse who had been under house arrest in Zumata since 1968 and struck a deal. Zumata would help to reinstate Bon T'luse as President of Mbote in exchange for recognition of Zumata's rights to the disputed border regions. The two men also agreed to the raising of a Mboten military force The Mbote Occupation Brigade (M.O.B.).

Due to the history between Bon T'luse and the British Britain refused to supply training and equipment for M.O.B. so Prime minister Gold turned to the USA. Fresh from their failed intervention in Vietnam the US weren't keen on getting directly involved in Mbote but desperate to get some sort of victory against communism the CIA were given the go head to give clandestine support to Bon T'luse. Within weeks a large amount of old US military kit (much of it WWII vintage) plus modern small arms were finding it's way to M.O.B. followed shortly there after by a number of mercenaries in the pay of the CIA to act as instructors. A new company called Air Mbote also started trading in Zumata and included several Huey helicopters and DC10 aircraft crewed by pilots with strangely American accents.

Early in 1974 Mbote found large natural gas supplies in disputed region of Mjuba bay this was the final catalyst for war. A war of words between Mbote and Zumata soon developed in to armed skirmishers, air strikes and artillery bombardments. In November of 74 Zumatan armed forces launched a full scale invasion across the Mbote border. While the main Zumatan attack was down the west side of Mbote with the intention of securing Mjuba bay and port Tchumba.

Bon T'luse's M.O.B. attacked from Zumata down the east side of the country to capture Mpongoville and then move west to link up with Zumatan forces around Zambuzi.

For a Map of the region see here

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jzrh5JSiEm0/TsOkOxscoOI/AAAAAAAADBw/53jriAY6xKg/s1600/Mbote.JPG

Basically all the above waffle is my way of saying I'm building a new army for AK-47 hopefully to be revealed on this Blog very soon.

Cheers Jon

News Flash - Zumatan forces sieze border post of S'mosa

2011-11-23T22:53:00.000-08:00

Reports are coming in from the conflict zone of Zumata/Mbote of a daring attack by Zumatan forces to sieze the river crossing of S'mosa. A Zumatan force code named force Jumbo and consisting of fast moving light armour supported by naval forces and helicopter borne Zumatan SAS seized the crossing after heavy fighting.

A helicopter coup de main to sieze the river crossing was quickly relieved by armoured cars and infantry in APCs. At the height of the battle an attempted attack by lorry mounted Mbote militia was stopped (see picture above) by accurate artillery strikes called in by a forward artillery spotter attached to SAS forces.

Despite the success of the operation Zumatan forces were forced to retire after Zumatan heavy armour, sent to relieve them, was delayed in fighting with M'bote armed forces further south.

More details to follow.

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/11/newsflash-mbote-militia-blunts-zumatan.html

News Flash - Zumatan forces cross Mbote Border

2011-11-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

BCC Correspondent Bob Beasley reports that Zumatan royal army forces crossed the Mbote border at 6.00hrs this morning. The Zumatan Royal Guard Division (pictured above) leading the way in their British made Centurion tanks. An hour before the Zumatans crossed the border targets on the Mbote side of the border were reported to have been subject to heavy artillery and air attacks.

Military analysts believe that Zumatan forces first objectives will be to secure the Npungwe river line and the town of Npungwe before striking south towards port Tchumba. Zumatan Naval force have also been reported to have been seen entering Mjuba bay and are expected to carry out naval landings south of port Tchumba.

General Henry "Big Buba" Chokwe (pictued above) who is in command of the Zumatan invasion forces held a press conference an hour ago. " Despite our best attempts at peace the left wing extremists of the Mbote goverment have forced us to act to protect both our country and our rights to the islands of Mjuba bay that belong to Zumata as set out in the 1896 treaty of London."

General Chokwe added "I have no doubt that highly trained personal of the Zumatan armed forces will bring about a swift and complete victory for Zumata."

More news to follow.

News Flash - Zumatan Air force launches raid on Mbote

2011-11-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

BBC correspondent Bob Beazely who is currently in the Zumatan capital of Westchester reports today that Zumatan forces have launched a series of air raids today in retaliation for yesterdays naval clash in Mjuba Bay.

While the Zumatan air force launched attacks on several key targets along the Zumatan Mbote border. Royal Zumatan navy fleet air arm A-1 skyraiders launched a devastating surprise attack on Mbote naval forces based at Port Tchumba (see pictures above). Unconfirmed reports suggest that several ships and dockyard buildings have been hit and smoke can be seen rising above the city.

Reports of Zumatan army divisions seen leaving their bases around Westchester and heading towards the border have yet to be confirmed.

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/11/newsflash-pdrm-naval-patrol-intercept.html

NEWSFLASH - Zumatan Navy launchs new battleship

2011-11-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

Zumatan Minster of Defence Mr Dod'g Gezzer reported today that the Royal Zumatan Navy has launched a new battleship ZNS Big Buoy (pictured above) on to Lake Bagombo. Mr Gezzer said "ZNS Big Buoy is the first in a series of new ships to be launched on to Lake Bagombo in a effort to curb the aggressive stance of neighbouring Mbote" Mr Gezzer went onto say " This new vessel is a feat of Zumatan engineering and includes no less than thirty coffee machines as well as some bloody big guns"

Mr Gezzer refused to answer rumours that ZNS Big Buoy is so large that it has stay in the middle of Lake Bagambo for fear of running a ground.

In further news Mr Gezzer also revealed that in a further sign of the close ties between Zumata and it's once colonial master the UK members of 22 regiment the infamous SAS have been in Zumata trainng a new Zumatan SAS troop for the last six months.

Finally Mr Gezzer denied that the launching of combined Zumatan Army Navy maneuvers in the region of Lake Bagombo is in anyway linked to the discovery of large amounts of natural gas by Mbote in the same area in the last few days. Mr Gezzer said " We have had these military maneuvers planned for several days and will be practicing naval assaults in the Mjuba Bay area."

Members of the press in the area reported a large Zumatan naval flotilla leaving port this morning heading towards Mjuba bay.

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/11/newsflash-bagombo-gas-strike-reuters.html

Slavers Baggage - Darkest Africa

2011-11-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well not a lot of painting since my bumper weekend a couple of weeks back. I have a unit of Askari half finished, just the highlighting and basing to do, and another unit of Askari under coated.

I have in the mean time managed to finish up a couple of baggage elements based on Rendera large oval bases. Made up of spare foundry Zanzibar characters and African porters. I need to make two more bases of baggage but I need to order some more porters from Foundry first.

Cheers Jon

Arabs and Baluchi - Darkest Africa

2011-10-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

As promised here some pictures of the rest of the stuff I painted this weekend. First up (top four pictures) is my first Arab unit. Rated as Askari in the heart of Africa rules these guys, along with two similar units, will be the main stay of my army. Each unit will be a mix of Arabs proper plus a number of African slaves and retainers. As troops go these guys are pretty dire who probably work best behind some sort of fortification.

the last four pictures are some Baluchi. These where going cheap on e-bay and don't really fit with my theme of a 1880s Arab army in Nyasaland. However the bulk of my Arab army will ,once painted, work for Arabs all over Africa. As these miniatures were cheap I thought I'd buy them and use them if I want to morph my army into an earlier Zanzibar army in east Africa.

I read on the lead adventure forum an interesting thread about the Baluchi including that they liked to were saffron (IE orange/yellow) clothing I thought that sounded a bit funky so I went with it. I usually use a brown base coat when I paint yellow but this time I wanted the colour to really stand out and went with an orange base colour. The result is probably far to orange for Baluchi saffron in reality but I like the result. The guy in middle is actually an Arab and has no doubt paid good money for his Baluchi bodyguard.

In game terms these guys are counted as swordsmen and are a very hard hitting unit probably the best Arab armies have accesses to.

next up I have another 24 Arabs and askari to paint up.

Cheers Jon

Bemba - Central African slavers

2011-10-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

As it's half term the wife took the children to see her mother for a couple of days giving me Sunday and sometime on Monday to paint. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity I painted like a man possessed and managed to churn out 24 Ruga-ruga, 6 more Arabs and 10 Baluchi.

First up some pictures of the 24 Ruga-ruga. As I'm starting with British central Africa these guys are going to represent Bemba allies for my Arab slavers. By all accounts the Bemba looked very much like proper east African Ruga-ruga so the foundry figures work well as Bemba.

It would seem that among tribes who liked to help the Arabs out in their slaving activities a certain slaver chic was the order of the day. This seems to have meant wearing a lot of gaudy clothes topped of with a load of bling. Unlike most musket armed tribes the Bemba liked to close for hand to hand combat after firing (a sort of African highland charge?) rather than skirmishing at a distance. As such the Ruga-ruga classification in the heart of Africa rules would seem the best way of classing these guys in the rules. hopefully they will give my otherwise pretty rubbish Arabs a bit of punch in close combat.

The miniatures are all Foundry (no surprise there) that I picked up in one of their clearance sales. Mostly Ruga-ruga but with a few tribesman in European clothes thrown in for some variety. I have no evidence that the Bemba wore any such clothing but they did come into violent contact with European missionaries and the British African lakes company. So a bit of looted European garb isn't out of the question (and more to the point the figures where going spare and looking for a home).

next up pictures of my Arabs and Baluchi

Cheers Jon.

Pay dirt

2011-10-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

I got a an email from foundry yesterday with Christmas deals and it turns out they had a limited number of Chris Peers east Africa book available so I grabbed one. Can't really afford it at the moment but who knows when I might get the chance to grab this OOP book again. If it is even half as good as the central Africa book it will be a great read.

Edit got an e-mail from foundry looks like someone got the last book while I was placing my order as such they can't send me a copy got a refund would rather have had the book ho-hum. I'll keep a look out on fleabay but looks like I'll be going without this book.

Slaver test pieces - Darkest africa

2011-10-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

I managed to get a few of my new Arab slavers painted up as test pieces before I launch into the full army. I was a bit eager to get some paint on these guys and rushed them a bit so the paint jobs are a bit rough. I tried some longer grass (little bits of door mat) on the bases than I usually use but I quite like the look.

At the moment, using Chris Peers in the heart of Africa rules, I think the army will be

3 units of Arabs and armed slaves/retainers count as askari (a mix of askari and Zanzibar figures)

2 units of Bemba allies count as Ruga-ruga (mostly ruga-ruga miniatures plus a few tribal musket men)

1 leader (the Arab with the spear in the above pictures)

1 standard bearer

baggage train (porter and spare Zanzibar miniatures)

I also have a unit of swordsmen for early Arab armies.

Lots to paint....

Cheers Jon

Darkest Africa - new project (doh)

2011-10-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I posted anything here. A combination of real life and being knocked off my motorbike by a newly qualified driver a few weeks ago has meant I haven't done a lot on the hobby front for the last month.

I'm slowly (very slowly) getting through the 15mm WW2 stuff for FOW I picked up cheap with my birthday money. In the mean time inspired by Chris Peers central Africa book from foundry. I took the plunge and picked up some cheap (well by foundry standards cheap) Darkest Africa miniatures in Foundry's clearance sale. I'm hoping to create an Arab slaver army with Bembe allies for Nyasaland.

I haven't actual done anything with the new miniatures yet but I did find these pictures of my old Darkest Africa collection before it went to the great ebay in the sky a few years back. Thought I'd share them.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of some of my late war US forces for FOW to post up soon.

Cheers Jon

Flames of war - Soviet Tanks

2011-09-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well it was my birthday last month as well as a copy of the Hail Caesar ancients rules and a copy of the foundry Central Africa book I received a nice little windfall of birthday cash.

While I was deciding what to do with my money I popped down to my local Hobby Craft to pick up some modeling supplies. Well it just so happens hobby craft had dumped all their Flames of War (FOW) stuff in the sale bin. A little while later I emerged with a bucket load of Soviet and American kit (weirdly all the German stuff had already been bought), a load of books and a starter rule set.

Anyway here are my first attempts at painting some 15mm WW2 5 soviet IS2 heavy tanks and 2 ISU152 heavy assault guns. I do like the distressed look to my tanks so these have had plenty of ink washes and dry brushing to try and make them look battle worn.

The FOW tanks are very nice models in resin with metal extras. I have to admit I wouldn't pay full price for them though and any reinforcements will come from else were (like QRF or the plastic soldier company)

I'm now painting up a FOW Soviet rifle battalion box set which I know is going to drive me nuts.....

Cheers Jon

Grünanlage der Löwe ( The Lion Park) - Mordheim

2011-09-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Another piece of Mordheim scenery. This time an overgrown public park Grunanlage Der Lowe (The lion Park) so named because of the lion fountain in the middle of the park (donated by a local noble returned from the Arabian crusades).

Quite a simple piece to build. A hardboard base with some walls made from foam core (suitably ruined) with a piece of my textured wallpaper to form a path. The fountain is a resin piece, from the ever present ebay, mounted on a piece of cork.

Lots of undergrowth from various railway scenics, door mat and aquarium plants. The dead tree is made from wire and toilet tissue to complete the look.

Cheers Jon

Middenheim Warband

2011-08-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well here is my second Mordheim warband the Middenheimers. Like my last warband all these guys, bar one, are based on the Perry Miniatures plastic WOTR mercenaries with a extras arms and heads from my bits box. The Champion with the two handed hammer is a GW metal Mordheim captain I had in my bits box.

The Middenheimers are in concept a mix of Renaissance Germans and vikings two looks that are quite hard to put together in my opinion. To try and make the middenheimers quite wild looking I've used plenty of bearded heads (mostly from Warlord Games Celts) and wolf cloaks. I stuck with bows and halberds for their main weapons with hammers for the heros.

These miniatures have been through the wars already. Having painted them at work in my lunch break I bought them home to finish the bases. Sadly I didn't close the figure case probably and so they got a very bumpy road home on the back of my motorbike. When I got home I had a twisted pile of broken limbs and weapons and damaged paint work.

They sat on my painting table for a couple of weeks before I could muster the energy to try and put them right lots of glue, green stuff and paint later and they don't look too bad. Although there are still a few slightly wonky weapons and heads on them.

Cheers Jon

House and stables

2011-08-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

More Mordheim buildings. These two are resin buildings from ebay. They could have been painted and used straight from the box but this Mordheim so I figured a bit of Damage was in order. I don't know what resin was used but is was very soft and the buildings were hollow inside (probably why they were pretty cheap).

The top building is a barn which I put a big hole in the roof with a hammer. I added some balsa wood beams into the hole and painted the whole thing. Simply but effective (I think).

The second building is a house which I sawed in half (don't forget the dust mask). Although hollow the insides of the building was very rough with big lumps of resin. I sanded and cut away the worst and then added some detail like walls and floors to hide the rest. Plenty of rubble, balsa roof beams and a spare resin door where also added.

I don't think it looks to bad although the break in the house is a little to regular I think and needs to be more jagged. I still have the second half of the house so we'll see how that one goes.

Cheers Jon

River and statue

2011-08-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

More Mordheim scenery this time a canal and a statue for a plataz.

The statue was easy to make a spare plastic Empire knight from my bits box mounted on a block of polystyrene carved to look like stone work. A hard board base and some more items from my bits box to imply a recent skirmish has taken place. Paint and jobs done.

The River is 12" long x 6" wide hardboard with a strip of 1" wide foam core down each side to make the banks. I added in a few bits of debris floating in the water (cart wheel, floating body). Then I added to crossing points a collapsed bridge and a make shift bridge across a pile of fallen masonry (a spare piece of lord of the rings plastic ruins). The bridge uses foam core and polystyrene scored with a pen to make stone work.

The river itself was smothered in thick PVA (coloured brown with cheap craft paint) left to dry a bit and then worked with an old stiff brush to give some texture. Some painting was done to give the impression the water was foul tainted effeulent. Finally the water was given some gloss varnish.

I've scaled my plans down a bit on my Mordheim project. Originally I was going for a 4x4 foot board but the scenery is very time consuming to build so I'm going to try and get one 2x4 foot board finished first so I can get some games going and come back to the second board latter (maybe after I've recharged my batteries with a different project). I have another warband almost finished (Middenheimers) which will hopefully but done by the end of the weekend which will give me both sides for a game.

Cheers Jon

Wizards tower

2011-08-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well the summer holidays are proving to be very unproductive on the hobby front (I'm actually starting to think there isn't a time of year when I am productive to be honest)

However I have managed to produce some more Mordheim scenery. First up is a wizards tower. This is a resin piece I got of ebay. It was pretty nice striaght out of the box but I wanted to make it look a little more wizard like and less military watch tower like.

The battlements of the tower are a seperate piece so I decided to build an alternative roof for the tower (sutiably damaged for Mordheim). The roof is made of card and balsa on a hardboard base. the chimney (which you can't actually see in the photos doh) and extra window came from a pack of spares sold by the same company who made the tower and help to match my scratch built roof to the orginal building.

I can now have the tower set up with battlements or a roof depending on what I want the tower to represent. I have a few more buildings and bits finished for my Mordheim project which hopefully I'll get pictures of posted up in the next few days.

Cheers Jon

The Red wolf Inn

2011-08-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Another ruined building for my Mordheim project this is the red wolf inn. It's built on a 6"x12" mdf base out of foamcore, polystyrene and balsa wood. I like the way it's turnned out except for the front. If I was doing it again I would probably make the front less straight and more ruined.

Next up are some resin buildings I got cheap off ebay (augusts budget spent) which I'm turning into ruins.

Cheers Jon

Sell swords

2011-07-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well the Mordheim project continues but I haven't had much worth posting up on the blog. I've got two more human war bands in various stages of completion. I've started sticking together a fourth war band (Averlanders) using some Perry's plastics and a load of GW empire bits my mate Jim sent me (Cheers Jim!). I've also got half a dozen ruined building at different stages of construction.

In the mean time I've started trying to get back into painting at work on my lunch break. I have a paint station and a a very limited set (think black, white and some basic colours) of GW paints in my office. The pictures above are the results of this weeks efforts.

All the miniatures were found in my bits box. I've painted them up to represent various sell swords that Mordheim warbands can hire on. Starting at the top we have

1) A pit fighter - an old citadel Norse miniature with a Mordheim plastic buckler added.

2) A Warlock - very old citadel pre-slotta wizard sadly he was so old when I tried to bend his hand it broke off. So a rummage in the bits box brought out a new hand and a lantern.

3) An elf scout- A 5th edition GW wood elf. A bit chunky for an elf IMO but you can't beat the price.

4) A duelist - an old dogs of war miniature from GW.

5) A Freelancer an old Grenadier fighting man miniature

I mat sprayed these miniatures but they look a little flat now so I might go back and use some gloss varnish on things like the metal work and gems.

Cheers Jon

Mordheim Warband No1- Marienburgers

2011-07-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

I finally finished these guys last night. As I said in a previous post the basis for these guys is the Perry miniatures WOTR mercenaries box set mixed with plenty of GW and other parts from my bits box. The only miniature that isn't from the Perry's box is the captain who is an old metal GW Mareinburg captain that I found in my bits box (bonus!)

Generally the GW parts (arms, heads and weapons) are a little bigger than the Perry's stuff but as long as your consistent with things like arms I think they look OK.

This particular band of ruffians are from Marienburg. In game terms Marienburger war bands have more starting gold crowns (600GC as opposed to 500GC) to start their initial war band
meaning you can have a few more men or snazzy wargear to start with.

I worked out a rough war band before I started sticking together and painting the miniatures which looks like this

1 captain -sword ,buckler,heavy armour

1 Champion -sword, buckler, light armour

1 young blood - helmet, halberd

2 marksmen - handguns, helmets

2 warriors - halberds

3 swordsmen - bucklers, swords

now I just need to finish the roster off with some names and fine tune the equipment and jobs a good'un.

Cheers Jon

Mordheim - building no.2 and first test miniature

2011-07-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Well I've had some good fun with the Perry's plastic WOTR mercenary box, I've spent a couple of evenings with my bits box and the perry figures and now have three fine mercenary warbands to prowl the ruined streets of Mordheim. There are a couple of shots of my first test paint job for my Marienburg warband. This guy is a swordsman henchman. I've gone for a blue and yellow colour scheme for this band which is quite striking and perfect for flashy Marienburgers.

Talking of Mordheim's streets I've put together another ruined building using the same techniques I described in my last post. Came out quite nice I think. I'm putting together a larger building in the form of a ruined inn as my next building. I'm also going to crack on and finish of the Marienburg warband to.

Cheers Jon

Mordheim - ruined building test piece

2011-07-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's my first piece of Mordheim scenery made just to try out some ideas and test my skills really. It's a simple two storey ruined house corner. The basic shell is foam core on a hardboard base. The upper floor is built from card with a balsa wood veneer. The street paving is made from a thin layer of filler left to semi dry and then paving stones were scratched in the filler with a sharp pencil. While the tiled floor is just squares of card glued onto the base.

While searching my scenery bits box I came across a bag full of the original plastic bits from the Mordheim box set (door,windows, ruined roof pieces and supporting wall pieces) which was a stroke of luck. So I've Incorporated a couple of windows and some corner wall pieces into this building.

The whole thing was given a liberal coat of homemade textured paint (pva, grey emulsion paint and floor tile grout) to give it some texture. The building was painted with various craft paints and household emulsion paints (much cheaper than using your good mini paints)

All in all I'm quite pleased with the result I'm going to need to do quite a few more though to fill an average 4x4foot Mordheim board. In fact I think the scenery will take longer than the warbands to do. One thing that does need careful thought is the amount of rubble /debris that goes into each building to much and it will become to hard to fit miniatures in to the ruins to little and the ruins will look far to clean.

Cheers Jon

Mordheim.......My new project.

2011-07-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well after a good rummage through my rule books to decide what project to kick start my new (improved?) wargames collection with I've settled on Mordheim as my first project.

I use to play Mordheim a lot when it first came out and it is a great little game. For those of you going Mord..a what? Mordheim is a skirmish game set in the Warhammer world. The background story is that the great city of Mordheim has been struck by a meteorite turning it into a post apocalyptic waste ground in which various factions have sent warbands to loot the ruins.

As well as providing skirmish games of Warhammer between warbands of 5-20 models. Mordheim has an excellent campaign system, anyone who has played legends of the old west or pirates of the high seas by WH historical will know the system, that allows your warbands to increase in experience gaining new skills and equipment.

I decided that Mordheim fitted my new frugal criteria quite well

1) The figures are 28mm but no warband can have more than 20 models in it and most can only have 15 which keeps the cost down.
2) GW have all the resources as free downloads on their website (yes really!) even the rulebook
3) I don't have the original buildings from the box set anymore but I have loads of foam core and balsa to scratch build some city ruins.

All in all the project should stay relatively cheap. I was going to buy a box of GW Empire militia to build my first warbands but while I was looking at ebay I came across the Perry miniatures European medieval mercenaries box. The Perry's box has twice as many models armed with a variety of weaponry for £3 less than the GW box so I ordered a box (post free too!).

I've made my first ruin as a test piece and hopefully I'll post some pictures soon. The perry's box arrived today and I hope to build the three basic Human mercenaries warbands (Reikland,Middenheim and Marienburg) from the miniatures in that box.

Cheers Jon

Comments....

2011-07-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

For some reason blogger won't let me leave comments at the moment. So If I don't reply please don't think me rude. In particular those who left comments for my last post I'd like to say Thanks guys!

Phoenix rising

2011-07-03T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well you might of noticed it has gone very quiet around here recently and in truth I've done very little on my hobby for some time. 2011 has seen the economic realities of the world bite home in our household. Threat of job loss, cutting of overtime and a whole host of household repair bills (motor bikes, car, tumble dryer, oven the list goes on). Has seen the family finances get rather ropey to say the least.

The wife and I decided we need to act clear our debts and sort out our finances. We re-negotiated better deals on our mortgage, fuel bills and insurances which saved quite a bit of money but to really benefit we needed to clear some debts to. In the end we decided to sell of some of the family silver which included ..............my wargames collection.

It wasn't an easy decision but it had to be done for the sake of the family so everything went to an ebay reseller for a price I was happy with. Well not quite everything I kept my painted AK-47 and Rapid fire Germans because I couldn't bare to part with them and a new unpainted Mantic elf army and 20mm US task force for rapid fire. I also kept all my reference and rules books, my paint and model supplies and a few board games. All my other miniatures and scenery went.

It was quite upsetting at first but now my wargames room is clean and tidy and I don't have unfinished projects staring at me from every corner it is also quite liberating. I now have a new 125 motorbike (the old one had cost me more in repair bills this year than it was worth) bought out of the money I got for my wargames stuff and the family budget is now in credit again each month. The result of this is I will now have a small hobby budget each month of about £25.00 (yay).

I've decided to re-evaluate my hobby too with a few rules that will hopefully allow me to make the most of my hobby budget and not leave with lots of half finished projects everywhere.

1) I need to drop down to smaller scale miniatures. It's time to admit I have neither the time nor the fiances to put together Wargames magazine style uber games in 28mm. It's what I've always aimed for and failed to do repeatedly.

2)I like painting 28s so will use them for skirmish games only (no more than two dozen miniatures aside say). For larger armies It's time to go to 20mm for ww2 and 15/12/10mm for other periods where I can get more for my money and paint up quicker.

3) I need to stick to a project and see it through to the end. No more jumping around to one shiny new thing after another.

4) I need to try stream line my scenery collection in to something that will cover as many period's and scales as possible.

5) I need to provide both sides to any conflict so don't have armies without opponents.

6) everything has to be kept cheap.

So like a phoenix rising from the flames my new wargames collection starts to day. I'm going down the wargames room latter today to look through my rule books and choose a new project which it quite exciting I have to say, the wargames world is my oyster (within budgetary constraints of course)

Cheers Jon

something else random - home made weapons pit

2011-06-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Another rather random result of a couple of spare hours in the wargames room. This one started with a rat that was terrorizing my compost bin. Said rat was duly poisoned, the poison came with several little plastic trays to hold the poison but I only used one. The others I kept because they looked useful.

A couple of weeks ago I turned one of the plastic trays into a weapons pit for use with my Valiant 1/72 Germans. Here's how

1) cut a whole in the tray with scissors to make an entrance

2) glue tray to a hardboard base with superglue

3) cover the outside of the tray with Das air drying putty, borrowed from my daughter's jewellery making set. Leave to dry over night

4) find out Das putty has cracked up during drying seal and fill the cracks with PVA glue and sand

5) add balsa wood to the inside of the tray and score with a sharp pencil to represent planks

6) add greenstuff sand bags

7) paint and flock

All in all a nice piece of scenery that cost not a lot.

Cheers Jon

Something random - sci-fi scout

2011-05-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well the good news is I got loads of painting done this bank holiday weekend the bad news is it was the master bedroom and not my miniatures that got the paint applied.

However I did convert and paint this Old Crow Rebel light utility vehicle as a light scout vehicle. This model was part of an ebay lot from about a year ago that has just sat in my bits box. Totally on a whim the other night with a couple of spare hours (when I should have been painting Celts) I added a few bits from my bits box.

The gun was built from a GW guard auto-cannon with an Old Crow gatling barrel plus varous bits of plastic from my bits box. I also added some stowage from the bits box and some headlights from an old GW Rhino model.

I sprayed the model with green and brown humbrol sprays in a two tone scheme and then dry brushed them up with lighter green and brown. After that I just went mad on the wear and tear and weathering using washes and drybrushing. I then added some spare decals from old model kits and weathered them as well.

I think it came out pretty well I'm tempted to get a few infantry to with it now.

Cheers Jon

British Nobles

2011-05-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

As I promised here are some pictures of the British nobles on foot that I finished at the weekend. Unlike most of my British army these guys are metal mostly from Foundry (an ebay bargain) with a couple of metal Warlord Games miniatures.

Most of the foundry miniatures were basically three poses so I did some head and weapon swaps with spares from my bits box. Shields are a mix of Foundry, Warlord and Wargames Factory shields. Some are hand painted some are transfers.

The next unit of British infantry is undercoated and ready to go on the workbench so hopefully they'll be finished this week.

Cheers Jon

More Britons

2011-05-15T08:08:00.001-07:00

Managed to finish off the light cavalry for my expanding ancient British army on Friday. These guys are from Warlord games but like my infantry I've mixed in bits from Wargames Factory Celts to give some variety.

The Warlord games cavalry came with some war hounds so I've added them to this unit to bulk it out and get me 6 bases from nine cavalry models. These guys are mounted on rendera 50mm x50mm cavalry bases with the usual sand and flock finish.

I've also finished up a unit of British Noble warriors on foot but no photos. Next up is yet more British/Celt infantry. Then I need to go back and revisit my Romans who need some more legionnaires painted.

Cheers Jon

Hail Caesar!

2011-05-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well I final got something painted this last bank holiday weekend after what seems like weeks of hobby inactivity (holiday,in-laws coming to stay,work,kids sports etc etc). It felt rather nice to be getting the old brushes out I must say.

Anyway as you can see I've painted some Britons (a mix of Warlord games and wargames factory plastics). I've been rather inspired by my holiday to Wales and the release of Warlords Hail Caesar Rules to try and get my Roman and ancient British armies finished after a long lay off.

I've got a copy of hail Caesar on pre-order with Amazon much cheaper than buying it elsewhere but sadly taking a lot longer to be delivered.

Working on some British Light cavalry now hopefully this will be the start of a more productive hobby as so far 2011 has been pretty poor.

Cheers Jon

Crug hywel

2011-04-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back from a very relaxing week in the Black mountains in Wales. As well as being a great holiday I've come back with lots of interesting hobby ideas. The Black mountains are on the Welsh/English border and as such must have one of the largest concentrations of fortifications anywhere in the UK.

My favorite was Crug Hywel (Hywel's fort) an Iron age hill fort. The surrounding ditch, remains of the stone walls and entrance way are all clearly visible. Despite not being the tallest hill around the views are stunning. As a defensive position it would have been a real bastard to attack. having climbed to the top I was in no condition to do anything other than breath heavily let alone swing a sword or climb over a stone wall bristling with angry Welshmen.

One thing I did think while I was clambering over Welsh hill tops (well other than "Christ my legs are killing me") was how often our wargames scenery doesn't really represents real world scenery. It's never any easy thing to reconcile, I could build the scenery around Crug hywel given enough time but it probably be almost unplayable in a wargame, on the other hand just sticking a hill on a flat table to represent the hill fort really wouldn't capture the feel of welsh

countryside.

There was quite a few Roman sites in the same area too all of which has kindle my interest in finishing the British and Roman armies I started last year but never finished. The arrival of Warlord games Hail Caesar! has also caught my eye.

Cheers Jon

Chaos claims thee - 2

2011-04-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well 2011 is so far proving to be pretty poor on the hobby front. I haven't managed to paint much since my last post. A couple of extra 80s chaos warriors (bottom 2) a chaos warrior from the 90s (middle pictures).

Also managed to paint up an old Runequest Broo from the early 80s as a beastman Shaman and an early 80s citadel evil cleric as a chaos sorcerer (top pictures).

I'm now off for a week long family holiday in Wales followed by a visit from the in-laws over Easter which means another two weeks of no hobby time Ho-Hum.

Jon

Chaos claims thee!

2011-03-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Spring is here which means I find myself under a barrage of spring cleaning jobs from she who must be obeyed. Weekends now seem to be taken up with sorting out the garden, clearing out the garage (and even worse rumours of clearing out the loft) in between children's sporting events and washing thing (bikes,car motor bike).

Anyway between all this I've managed to find some time to paint up some chaos warriors for my WFB army. I decided to go for a chaos undivided army rather than a chosen power but I didn't want to go down the black and silver/gold route favoured for chaos armies these days.

I played around with some colour schemes and decided on this red and green combo which I'll carry over to the rest of the army.

The miniatures are all pre-slotta citadel miniatures chaos warriors circa 1984 (except the guy in the bottom picture who is a very early post slotta circa 1985). There are a few conversions with bits from my bits box, because a) I had some duplicates and b) some of the lead weapons where very bent.

These guys could be warriors or marauders depending on the pts of the army. As warriors this unit weighs in at circa 1000pts for 12 models ............

I've got another 15 or so of these old school warriors as well as a unit of old school beastmen to go with them. Some characters and a few odds and sods to add to the baggage train. I might throw in some Mantic Abyssal Dwarfs as allies to.

Cheers Jon

Back of beyond - Reds vs Whites

2011-03-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

I managed to get down to the club for the first time this year and enjoyed a game of BoB with Jim. Jim's Reds and my Whites dueled it out for six turns but the end of the night saw a draw. Jim's many machine guns caused a lot of casualties to my infantry and cavalry (my cossacks really are useless). While my artillery and armoured train pounded Jim's support assets to dust while leaving his infantry pretty much in tacked.

I forgot to take the camera but Jim has some photos up on his site here

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/03/back-of-beyond-battle-photos.html

Still not convinced by the contemptible little armies rules, the inability for most units to move and fire makes offensive action pretty much pointless. I do however like the BoB concept so it may be a case of seeing what other rules would work for BoB

Cheers Jon

Can you guess what it is yet?

2011-03-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly breaking records on the painting front at the moment. All the usual suspects work, family, etc etc have conspired to cut down my hobby time. I have managed to put together and paint this chaos spawn though.

A long time ago I bought a metal GW chaos spawn model. I didn't really like it and it end up in the bits box were a few pieces were used in other projects and the rest just sat there until last week. I was looking for something else in my bits box when I started finding bits of this model.

One thing lead to another and with a good rummage for other interesting parts I ended up with the thing in the pictures. I rather like it I have to say. It's now going to form the centre piece of a Warhammer chaos army that I've been slowly building up for a while now.

Cheers Jon

beer and beards - 7

2011-03-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

The Baggage train is finally finished for my dwarf army. In WFB 3rd edition most armies can have a baggage train (and in fact require one if they want to field mercenaries). They also play apart in the Mighty Empires campaign I hope to run one day. For each 1000pts spent on the army the baggage requires a wagon and 5 camp followers. The camp followers are armed with improvised weapons and can fight if the baggage encampment is attacked. The idea of doing some non combatant vignettes appealed to me so I'm going to do baggage trains for all my armies.

I've made a baggage train big enough for a 3000pt army although my dwarfs are only 2000pts at the moment. I've cheated slightly and mounted smaller groups of models on 40x40mm bases but I'm going to count them as four figures. If you're really eagle eyed you may notice the baggage train is a dwarf short, hopefully ebay will furnish me with one of those Citadel dwarf villagers miniatures from the 80s soon.

The three wagons are grudge wagons from the skull pass box set picked up on ebay for pennies. The wagons are pretty much as they came. I fiddled with the loads on the tops a bit for some variety and added a couple of flags just to pep them up.

The dwarf chef has been in my bits box for years is from citadel and I think came with the Gob lobber catapult (sadly long gone). The dwarfs with tools are from Ral partha and sold as dwarf engineers they're Bob Olley sculpts and look great as baggage types in my opinion. They must be beardlings though as they're tiny. The three beer swilling dwarfs with the barrel of Bugmans XXX are also Bob Olley sculpts I picked them up on ebay so I have no idea what range they came from. They do show scale creep of at its finest though as these guys are huge.

The dwarf army is so close to being finished now, up to the 2000pts level. At some stage I'll go up to 3000pts but right now I'm sick of painting dwarfs. Which is a problem as I have 10 crossbow dwarfs left that need to be finished but I just can't muster the enthusiasm.........

Jon

Cheap jungle terrain 2

2011-03-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

So here are my finished jungle terrain pieces using the plastic aquarium plants I got from the 99p store. I made ten pieces mounted on old CDs (I always collect any old CDs/DVDs I come across). I already had some jungle terrain I bought at a wargames show many years ago that was a bit tired looking and based as individual pieces. I broke the old scenery of their bases and added them to my 99p store pieces to make quite a nice mix of foliage. A bit of sand paint and flock finished off the CDs nicely.

I'm pretty pleased with the results. The only down side is that my 6x4 table rather swallows up the ten pieces I think I really need another ten. Looks like another trip to the 99p store is on the cards.

Jon

Cheap Jungle terrain

2011-03-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

While being dragged around the shops by the wife yesterday (another downside of works overtime ban) I ended up in the local 99p store were I found these plastic aquarium plants. There were lots of different packs ranging from 4 small ,3 medium or 2 large plants on a resin base for a princely 99p a pack (not surprisingly).

I picked up five packs and plan to renovate my existing jungle terrain on to CD bases with these added jungle foliage. It might not be very realistic for really world conflicts but will certainly do for Sci-fi and fantasy games. In particular my jungle loving Slann army will feel much more at home.

Cheers Jon

Durin's Gap - part 2

2011-02-23T22:40:00.001-08:00

Turn 1

Thane Gudnam felt a sense of pride as with practised ease the dwarf battle line formed up. Warriors made final checks on their equipment and officers shouted commands. Staring out at the enemy Gudnam saw they had started to advance as if compelled by some silent order. A hush descended on the dwarfs as Gudnam stepped forward and opened the book of grudges that he carried. As he read aloud from the ancient book he could see the effect it had on the dwarf's around him they gripped thier weapons tightly, stood that bit taller and seemed to grow in confidence. Gomil leader of the hammerers shouted "incoming!" seconds later with a hideous scream a skull flew over the dwarven army and exploded behind them in a shower of razor sharp bone fragments. Turning to the nearby cannon crew Gudnam shouted "show these abyss born scum what a really war machine looks like" moments later a sound like thunder echoed off the mountains flanking Durin's gap the battle had began.

Jean D'Noir gave the silent order for her army to advance. With low moans and the creaking of ancient armour they set of at a shuffle towards the dwarf line. On her right the ghoul pack loped forward eager to taste dwarf flesh. Closing her eyes Jean started to chant softly she opened her mage sight and saw the winds of magic blowing across the skies above her. multi coloured clouds of pure energy. With her mage sight Jean could see the thin strands of dark magic that connected her to each undead warrior in her army. Jean continued to chant drawing the black coiling energy of dark magic down into her body and then sending it back out towards her undead charges as she watched the the strands of dark energy grew visible thicker. Her spell complete jean was jolted back to her senses by a loud noise like rolling thunder. As she watched an iron ball slammed into a regiment of skeletons smashing aging bone and rusted armour into dust scything down several skeletons before burying itself in the ground.

Turn 1 kicked off with the undead advancing as fast as they could towards the dwarf line. While the dwarfs chose to whittle down the living dead with their superior firepower. The dwarf cannon took out several skeletons while the undead catapult overshot by some distance. Jean cast a spell to increase the range of her control over her undead from 12" to 24". while Gudnam used his magic book to enthuse the dwarf warriors unit giving them +1 LD. in the reserve phase they undead continued to move toward the dwarf line.

Turn 2

Engineer Sargent Kila Rockheart watched as the ghouls ran towards his regiment of thunderers. Calmly he gave his orders in a loud clear voice "Take aim!, Mark you targets!, "Fire!" There was a satisfying roar of black powder weapons being unleashed. Through the flashes and smoke of discharging weapons Kila saw several of the loathsome undead plucked of their feet by lead bullets.

With a big grin he turned to his regiment"well done la..........". Several of his charges stood looking sheepish their faces blackened, beards smoking and horribly mangled arquebuses in their hands. Kila shook his head "How many times? Don't use so much bloody powder!"

Jean watched as the dwarfs cannon fired again blasting more of her army to dust. Turning to the nearby catapult she shouted "Silence that infernal machine!". As the catapult crew worked to fire their machine Jean pulled a handful of human teeth from a pouch on her belt "I think some reinforcements might be in order" she said. Chanting softly she sucked in a mouthful of dark energy and blew it softly over the teeth in her palm before throwing them onto the ground. As her spell finished she mouthed one word "Arise". All around her skeleton warriors burst from the ground.

Turn 2 saw the undead continue to advance at all speed towards the dwarf lines. More undead fell to crossbows, handguns (although three dwarfs managed to misfire) and cannon fire(removing 6 zombies). Jean cast a spell to raise seven new skeletons. The undead catapult managed to land a shot on the dwarf cannon killing a crewman.

Turn 3

Killa Rockheart had to admit that although the dwarf built aquebus his regiment carried were a marvel of modern technology there were definitely areas for improvement. Loading time was something that really needed to be worked on"reload RE...LOAD!" Killa shouted panic entering his voice as the filthy horde of Ghouls broke into a ragged charge.

The ghouls were on the thunderers in seconds and a vicious melee broke out Killa swung his aquebus two handed like a club as he attempted to hold two slavering ghouls at bay. Distracted as he was Killa didn't noticed the ghoul behind him until it's venomous teeth sank into his arm.

Jean allowed here self a smile of satisfaction as the ghoul pack on her right flank swarmed all over the dwarven regiment. Using their numbers the ghouls pulled down the dwarf warriors clawing and biting them as they bore them to the ground. The dwarfs broke throwing down their weapons and fleeing the ghouls following close behind hacking at the fleeing dwarfs. Jean watched with a mix of fascination and revulsion as some of the ghouls fell on the dead bodies of the dwarfs and began to feed.

Turn 3 saw things really hot up. The undead started to close to within charge range. The ghouls charged the thunderers and beat them in combat forcing the dwarfs to rout (ghouls cause fear so the dwarfs broke automatically) several ghouls failed to follow up the dwarfs but stayed to feed on the dead (nice) while the rest gave chase to the routing dwarfs. Seeing the thunders rout the dwarf cannon crew panicked and fled too.

The undead artillery failed to land on target again. Jean cast a second summon skeletons spell adding three more skeletons to the seven from last turn, leaving her with only a couple of magic points left.

The dwarfs passed their fear checks and the dwarf warriors charged the zombies and the Hammerers led by Thane Gudnam charged the skeleton regiment. The dwarf warriors in an abject display of combat ability failed to kill any zombies while losing two of their number resulting in another auto break result. The Hammerers showed the rest of the army how to do it smashing up four skeletons and watching more crumble as instability took hold.

Turn 4

Thane Gudnam swung his hammer two handed in a wide arc smashing another skeleton into dust. All around him the hammerers were pushing forward over piles of rusted armour and broken bones that had been skeleton warriors. As the fight swung in the favour of the dwarfs the magic binding the skeletons started to unravel and skeletons collapsed into heaps. "Destroy them! destroy them all " shouted Gudnam sensing victory.

Kurt Ricter slashed his evil glowing rune sword across the back of another dwarf. Centuries of hate and frustration gave strength to his blow. Unlike the zombies he led, Kurt was self aware. In life he'd been a hero to his people in death he was a slave to a wizard aware of his undead life yet with no control of it Kurt took his anger out on the fleeing dwarfs around him.

Turn 4 saw the ghouls reforming having chased the thunderers of the table. The dwarf crossbows attempted to charge the zombies in the flank as the chased the fleeing dwarf warriors however fear got the better of them and they failed to charge. The hammerers destroyed the skeleton regiment. Heni Trollsbane the dwarf slayer charged the ghouls feasting on the dead thunderers and dispatched them all in a single round of combat.

Turn 5

Olaf Gunnison quarreller Sargent of a crossbow regiment stared across the battlefield. With the dust, smoke and noise it was hard to tell what was going on. His gut told him things weren't going well and his gut was rarely wrong. As he wondered what orders to give his regiment the wind seemed to clear the dust and smoke for an instant. There stood some distance away was a female manling dressed in red and carrying a staff. Olaf quickly decided on his new orders "Shoot the witch!"

Jean cursed it was hard to tell what was going on as the battle descended into chaos. Out of the dust and smoke a fierce looking dwarf wielding two vicious axes appeared heading towards her as fast as his stubby looking legs could carry him. Jean didn't need to think twice, drained of energy she was powerless to stop the evil looking dwarf, she turned on her heels and ran. Quickly outpacing her purser Jean started to relax and then she screamed as a crossbow bolt buried it's self in her thigh.

Turn five saw the magically summoned skeletons charge the hammerers in an attempt to stop them. The undead catapult continued to lob skulls randomly around failing to hit anything at all. the zombies continued to cut down fleeing dwarfs. The ghouls headed towards the rear of the hammerers hoping to set up a charge next turn. Jean headed away from the dwarf troll slayer putting her in front of the dwarf crossbow regiment.

The hammerers smashed the skeletons to pieces. While Heni Trollsbane headed towards Jean. The crossbows shot jean taking two of her three wounds.

Turn 6

Thane Gudnam and the hammerers gave a great cheer of victory as the last of the skeletons facing them collapsed. "victory!" shouted Gudnam instead of a roar of dwarven approval he was expecting his cry was meet with animalistic howls and shouts of panicked dwarven voices coming from the rear of his regiment. Suddenly panic reigned all around Gudnam. Gomil the hammerer leader fell forward a vicious creature in dirty rags raking his back with filthy razor sharp talons. "Hold HOLD!" shouted Gudnam even as the dwarfs broke in flight.

Jean D'Mort cried with pain she was hurt bad and she knew it. In front of her dwarf warriors were re-loading their deadly crossbows. Behind her the evil looking dwarf with the axes was closing in fast. Summoning every last ounce of power Jean started to chant the words of a spell of flight to allow her to escape her predicament. The spell was simple but in her panicked state and with pain flaring through her leg she fumbled the words. She heard the twang of crossbows being fired looking up she just had time to say "Oh sh........." Jean D'Mort was dead.

Turn 6 saw the battle come to a bloody end. The ghouls charged into the rear of the Hammerers regiment cutting down dwarfs and forcing them to rout. The zombies chased the dwarf warriors of the table. Jean tried to cast a flight spell but failed an intelligence test so was shot dead by the dwarf crossbows instead.

Aftermarth

Olaf Gunnison peered into the dawning light of morning from behind the improvised barricade that surrounded the baggage train. It had been several hours since the last undead attack on the survivors of the dwarf army and in the improving light it seemed the undead were gone.

The dwarfs losses in battle had been so heavy that Olaf a mere Sargent was the most senior officer left alive. He and his crossbows had retreated to the baggage train as darkness fell organising the camp followers Olaf and the survivors had fought of several undead attacks over night as wounded and lost dwarfs had emerged out of the darkness to seek the safety of the baggage train.

As Olaf rubbed his tired eyes he see saw two figures emerge out of the morning gloom "Stand to!" shouted Olaf. All around him weary dwarfs manned the baricades clutching weapons. A voice called out in dwarvish " Stop pointing those ruddy crossbows at me or I'll shove me axe up your jacksee lad" Olaf quickly reconisged Heni the troll slayer covered in ichor and bone dust and supporting a heavily wounded dwarf."I think the Thane might need a bit'o help" shouted Heni.

Result a draw

The Battle of Durin's Gap - part 1

2011-02-23T11:55:00.000-08:00

Jean D'Noir stared out into the hazy morning light at the assembling dwarf host and cursed loudly she hadn't expected to meet an army coming west through Durin's gap but there they were anyway blocking her path east. She knew the Dwarfs must have come from Khazd-Norn but what were they doing here? It didn't seem to matter now the dwarfs were rapidly forming up for battle and if she was to complete her mission they would have to be dealt with. Durin's gap was a narrow strip of flat land traveling east to west through the southern grey mountains here at it's narrowest point there was no way Jean's army could carry on east with the dwarfs formed up in front of them. "It looks like we'll have to make them move" Jean sighed to the two undead warriors stood at her side.

Jean scanned the enemy lines and counted four regiments of dwarfs. She turned to walk away just as the dawning sun caught something large and metallic. Jean shielded her eyes and saw a large cannon being wheeled into place in the centre of the dwarf line she cursed loudly again. Turning to the two passive undead warriors at her side Jean spoke "return to your regiments and prepare for battle"

Thane Gudnam was woken with a start by a stocky dwarf in full armour "think we got a problem thane" said the dwarf. Grabbing his gear the thane followed the dwarf towards the edge of camp. Gudnam put his dwarven crafted spyglass up to his eye and scanned the western horizon as the undead host focused into site the Thane grinned "Looks like we won't have to march all the way to the plain of winds" he said cheerfully the enemy have come to us. He turned to Gomil the leader of the Hammerers regiment "Form the troops up, missiles on the wings, infantry and artillery in the centre" Gomil turnned sharply and hurried off.

Gudnam raised his spyglass again "These undead really are a foul sight" he mused to himself. Skeleton warriors stood eerily still tattered rags blowing in the morning breeze, rusted weapons and battered shields held firmly in their bony grip. Nearby a unit of zombies waited rotting flesh barely holding in liquefied inner organs. Gudnam fought back the urge to gag as one zombie lifted a severed hand to its mouth. Screeching on the breeze drew the thane's attention to the far end of undead battle line were a pack of feral ghouls scraped and bickered over a corpse. Next to the ghouls Gudnam saw a catapult it's skeleton crew working hard to load it with what looked suspiciously like a skull.

Gudnam turned towards his army "It's going to be a long day" he said to no one in particular.

Above the two armies deploy for battle.

Hopefully this will be the first of several battles in a little narrative campaign between my new undead and dwarf armies. I hope to get a full write up with pictures on the blog in the next couple of days. I have posted up a little background story for the campaign (see the post below this one) and this post gives you the background to the first battle a meeting engagement between two detached forces in a narrow mountain pass.

The rules used for this battle were WFB 3rd edition (not really a surprise there) and the two armies where 1000pts each. I used the Warhammer armies book lists as a guide but basically ignored some of the min/maxs and rules for low level characters as unit champions because at 1000pts these conditions where a little to restrictive. On to the armies

The Dwarven detachment from Khzad - Norn

General - Thane Gudnam -level 15 dwarf hero with heavy armour, double handed weapon and the book of grudges (level 1 enthuse spell)

Heni Trollsbane - level 10 troll slayer hero with magic axe (frenzied)

11 Hammerers (+4 shock elites) including standard,musician and leader equipped with heavy armour,shields and double handed weapons

10 thunderers with arquebus and light armour

10 crossbowdwarfs with crossbow and light armour

20 Dwarf warriors including standard,musician and leader equipped with light armour and shields

1 3 man cannon

1 baggage train of one cart and 5 camp followers

The Undead column of Jean D'Noir

Jean D'Noir - Level 15 necromancer

Kurt Ricter - Level 10 undead hero with light armour, shield magic sword (baneblade) leading the zombies

Harald Kruger - level 10 undead hero with light armour shields and magic spear (hellhoned)
leading the skeletons

3 man undead catapult with screaming skull ammunition

19 skeleton warriors including standard and musician equipped with spears, shields and light armour

29 zombies including standard and musician equipped with bones, clubs and severed limbs

20 Ghouls equipped with poisonous claws, teeth and a bad attitude

Next the battle as it happened............

The coming of war

2011-02-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

2 months ago

Jean D'noir the necromancer entered the room and took in the scene before her. The man she called Master was sat at his large ornate desk constructed from the bones of some long dead beast surround by piles of scrolls,books and maps deep in concentration. The room was lit by several black candles each set in a human skull hung on the walls. In front of the desk was a rug of human skins sewn together in a macabre patch work. She moved swiftly into the room "You summoned......." the words died on her lips as the man raised a hand to indicate silence.

She studied the man more closely as she waited for him to speak. When they had first meet he had still been young, handsome in a dark way with thick black hair and those deep purple eyes that had sent a thrill through her every time they meet hers. Now many years on the study of dark magic had taken it's toll. His hair was now gone leaving him totally bald, his once perfect skin was aged wrinkles forming around his eyes and mouth. Once they had been lovers but her master had long stopped caring about such things a fact she was truly grateful for as she regarded his now aged body.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the man looked up at her. She was caught in the gaze of his purple eyes and realised that despite his appearance her master wielded massive power. His body had suffered under the ravages of time and dark magic but in return his ability to control and use magic has increased beyond measure. Jean was a powerful sorceress herself but she new compared to her master she was like a child compared to a giant, there was still much she could learn from this man she thought.

Her master spoke his voice thin and reedy again much changed from the rich mellow voice he had possessed in the early years of their relationship. "I have located the item we seek" he said waving a hand across the map on his desk. Jean bent forward to look closer as she did her master brought a long bony finger down onto the map. Jean gave a sharp intake of breath "do you think the towns folk will just let us walk in and take it?" she said. "Why would I care what such insects think who are they to dare challenge me?" said her master angrily.

Hearing the danger in her masters voice Jean moved to steer the conversation on "A couple of regiments of skeletons should do. I can be there within a week". "No" said her master "we need an army". "I hardly think that will be......" Jean started to say before her master silenced her with a look."We are not the only ones looking for the treasure we seek. Others of our kind desire to posses it and their spies are everywhere" said the master " we need a diversion something to focus eyes away from our true intentions we need a...........war"

The conversation continued Jean listened carefully as her mastered outlined his plans for an invasion south into the petty kingdoms of the border princes to fight a war that was nothing more than a diversion aimed at securing a powerful treasure.

1 week ago

Heinrich Gotlieb chancellor of Baron Hendrik of Gelderland entered through the massive wooden double doors and into the throne room of the dwarven hold of Khazd-Norn. The dwarf herald next to him launched into a long introduction that involved giving Heinrich's family tree back at least ten generations. Heinrich studied his surroundings "say what you like about dwarfs" Heinrich thought to himself "but by the gods they are the finest craftsmen". He looked up to the high vaulted ceiling and then down the perfect block work walls everywhere he looked there were magnificent stone carvings of dwarfs inlaid with gems and precious metals.

A loud cough broke Heinrich from his thoughts the rather disgruntled dwarven herald raised a bushy eyebrow "You may proceed" he said in a gruff voice waving his hand towards the other end of the room.

As he proceeded towards the high dais at the other end of the room Heinrich got his first site of King Durak Flamebeard of Khazd-Norn. Sat upon the famous Iron Thorne of Khazd-Norn sat a dwarf in a suit of highly polished steel plate, a red fur trimmed cloak clasped with a huge ruby hung around his shoulders upon his head a crown of gold inlaid with more rubies and in the centre a rare fire diamond.

Heinrich bowed low "Your highness I come with a message from my liege lord of the up most urgency. He begs that you come to our aid we........" Heinrich was stopped short by the sound of loud tutting. From the shadows to the right of the throne stepped a an old white bearded dwarf wearing long blue robes covered in silver stars. "You manlings are always in such a hurry, before the king can discuss business the proper protocols must be observed...........

Heinrich opened his eyes slowly, his head pounded and his throat was parched. Dwarven ale was stronger than anything he'd ever drunk including Kislevite vodka and some very fine Tilean wines. He comforted himself with the fact that the ale drinking had been necessary to seal the oaths of alliance. It hadn't been easy the dwarfs had bargained hard and had managed to negotiate some very good trade deals. In the end though the dwarfs knew that if they didn't support the human kingdoms to southwest against the army of undead pouring out of the mountains they could well be next "not that they would admit it thought" thought Heinrich sourly.

The agreement had been struck the dwarf king would send a small force through Durin's gap to join with the human armies gathering on the plain of winds. Then as soon as the full might of Khazad-Norn could be raised the king would lead the host west himself to crush the army of dead threatening them all. Heinrich raised a small smile the balance of this war had just changed dramatically, then as if smiling had been to much effort he sunk back into his bed to nurse his hangover.

4 days ago

Thane Gudnam looked around at the small army he had been given the honour of commanding. His own clan warriors stood still waiting for the order to march most were armed with the traditional axe and hammers of dwarf warriors but full one third, the best shots in the clan carried crossbows.

Behind the warriors came the baggage train and the artillery crewed by the engineers guild and acting as rear guard where a group of engineers armed with those dangerous newfangled black powder handguns. Around him Thane Gudnam was accompanied by a detachment of the kings personal bodyguard of Hammerers the finest warriors of the dwarven army equipped with their deadly two handed hammers that could crush an enemies skull like an egg.

Just as he was about to give the order to march. A dwarf stripped to the waist, clad in a rough bearskin cloak, his hair dyed bright orange and spiked with pig fat appeared. As he got closer Gudnam could see the many scars on the dwarfs torso and the fine axes hanging at his belt. Thane Gudnam let out a soft curse "alright laddy" the newcomer said smiling to reveal several broken teeth."I hears there's fighting to be had?" Gudnam didn't answer the dwarf shrugged his shoulders and head towards the baggage train. Gudnam sighed but knew there was no point trying to stop the slayer joining his command. With a last curse he turned to his command "Forward to Durin's gap".

3 days ago

Jean D'noir careful picked her way across the debris of battle heading for the town centre to pass on the news her master was waiting for. After the din of battle hours early the quite crackling of burning buildings and the odd squawk of a carrion crow seemed oddly quiet.

As Jean reached the town square she saw her master waiting flanked by his skeleton bodyguards the last week of death and slaughter had agreed with him. The old, shuffling and rag adorned man of the mountains of a few weeks ago had been replaced with a man seemingly in his prime his purple eyes, the only thing visible behind his steel war mask glowed with an intense inner fire that Jean had not seen for years.

"What news" said the master. "It is as you expected the princes have allied. Their armies muster on the plain of winds as we speak" Jean replied. Her master nodded slowly but said nothing. After what seemed like hours but could have been only minutes her masters head jerked up and he fixed with a stare. "I want you to take a third of the army. March east through Durin's gap then south. With our enemies armies here facing us their homes are defenceless destroy them! Then march north and fall on their armies from the rear while I hold them in place with the main army."

As Jean headed away from the burning town with her army she smiled. She had always been a sadist at heart. When she was younger she had fought such urges but these days she excepted them, embraced them even. The thought of a dozen defenceless towns at her mercy gave her a thrill it was time to indulge her urges..........

Beer and Beards - 6

2011-02-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

For tonight's post I've got a couple of characters and some war hounds.

First up at the top we have the armies only Slayer an independent character armed with a pair of magic axes. Personally for me I think slayers work better as a concept as individuals the idea of whole units of slayers seems wrong to me. This miniature is from the Mantic dwarf characters set. I've tried to match him in colour wise with rest of the army I've also tried the magic weapon technique I started trying with my undead army. All the magic weapons in my dwarf army are fiery orange (makes me think of furnace fires, smelting and such like) as opposed to the sickly green I went for in my undead army. Like the undead I've tried to give the impression of glowing magic weapons by highlighting surfaces near the magic weapons in fiery orange.

Next up we have the armies wizard. Those of you who got into warhammer in later editions are probably saying WTF dwarf wizards?! but back in 3rd WFB edition dwarfs had wizards, not very good ones granted but wizards all the same. This miniature is actual a 1984 pre-slotta miniature from the Citadel Dwarf Kings Court set. I picked him on ebay for a whopping 99p. He's a little smaller than the Mantic dwarfs but I think he's kind of cool. He painted up really nicely too.

Last up we have some Mantic dwarf pitdogs. I got seven in the army set but originally didn't think I could find a use for them. However looking through the dwarf army list it turns out If I have a wizard I can summon a monstrous host which can be made up of several different creatures including war dogs. So I based them up and painted them. As a unit they give my something a bit different to the army namely speed, making them an interesting fast cavalry style unit.

That's it for photos for now. I have a half finished warrior regiment, a unit of crossbows that are undercoated and three wagons to make my baggage train (a feature of most armies in WFB 3rd edition) to finish off by the end of the month. So more painting less blogging for the next few days.

Cheers Jon

Beer and Beards - 5

2011-02-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

OK for tonight's post we have the firepower of my Dwarven army. The Mantic Dwarf army comes with 30 dwarfs armed with either handguns or crossbows I decided to go for a 20/10 mix in favour of the crossbows dividing them into three units of 10 dwarfs

I divided the miniatures further putting all the cloaked bodies into the handgun unit (thunderers) and the non cloaked bodies into the two crossbow units.

The top pictures are of one of the crossbow units these guys are normal dwarf warriors and are linked to one of the warrior units by the leader having the same helmets (in this case the boar helmet as both units are from the Boartusk clan, renowned for their pig headiness)

The thunderers are actually from the engineers guild and have the same brown work cloaks as the artillery crews (who are also guild members).

There is still one more unit of crossbows to paint up, they've been undercoated and I've got twelve days to finish them no problem.........

Cheers Jon

Beer and Beards - 4

2011-02-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Tonight's unit from this months on going dwarf project is the elite Hammerers bodyguard of the king. In WFB 3rd edition these guys are +4 shock elites (IE dead hard)

The Mantic army set included a unit of shield breakers (IE dwarfs with double handed hammers). However they didn't really look any different from the rest of the units. So I did a bit of mixing and matching and chose all the bodies with cloaks and closed face helms to to mark the unit out from the rest of the dwarfs as a bit different. I painted the cloaks burgundy too to give them a more elite look.

The command group for this unit were a bit of a problem however. The Mantic army set only contains two command sprues despite giving you three regiments of fighting dwarf's. So a delve into the bits box found me a beastman horn, an empire spear and a lion helmet which with some green stuff (to enclose the helmets) and some extras of the Mantic sprues gave me a musician, leader and standard bearer for this unit.

Hopefully along with the army general and army standard bearer this unit will provide the rock hard core of my dwarf army.

Cheers Jon

Beer and Beards - 3

2011-02-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Right so having declared February "finish my Mantic dwarf army for WFB 3rd edition month". I thought I'd post pictures of some of the dwarf stuff I've finished. First up the artillery.

As stated in a early post I was little disappointed with the Mantic artillery. It was a little plain and the cannon wasn't nearly imposing enough. So both artillery pieces got a bit of upgrading with green stuff to give it a bit more dwarf character. The cannon also got a new barrel in the form of a plastic empire great cannon from the bits box.

the crew have some minor conversions such as the beer mug and the matches. The Mantic artillery only come with two crew so a couple of normal dwarf infantry were drafted in with arms from the artillery crew sprue. I also made a couple of smoking boots as misfire markers. The boots came on the Mantic artillery sprues and I added some cotton wool on a wire frame for the just blown up effect.

Cheers Jon

Life can really screw with your hobbies - part 3

2011-02-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

Well I returned to work today after almost three weeks off with a back injury. First memo on my desk from senior management is regarding redundancies, apparently we need to shed 50-60 staff. No compulsory redundancies yet natural wastage and an attractive voluntary scheme are on offer first. No new staff are to be taken on the rest of us are just going to have work harder and longer to cover the shortfall (and be grateful that we still have a job too).

I have to admit I toyed with the idea of taking voluntary in my lunch break and going into the figure painting business. But even after 15 years employment the numbers don't stack up. On top of which one thing that working for Games Workshop in my mis-spent youth taught me is that the quickest way to fall out of love with your hobby is to turn it into a job. As I can't afford to leave/lose my job I can look forward to sleepless nights wondering if I'll end up on the money saving hit list Ho-hum.

Of more concern to my hobby though is an immediate ban on overtime I used to put in a few hours a month to bring in another £50-100 a month most of which goes on toys. That's gone now so the hobby budget has just taken a big hit.

Thinking about at work today though I've decided that I can turn this into a positive. Last week in a fit of boredom I decided to have a good go through the wargames room. It was rather worrying that I had a round 12 unfinished armies and projects. Some are within a whisker of being finished others have a lot to do. I've decided to try and devote one month to each army and project to get it finished. what hobby budget I do have I need to use to finish things rather than start new ones. It's a plan I don't now if it will work but it's worth a try.

First off for February is to finish of my Mantic dwarf army shouldn't be too hard as its 3/4s done anyway...........

Something Fun

2011-02-08T01:26:00.000-08:00

Found this on the net I thought it was really fun. This bloke has basically modelled up the old action force toys into 28mm miniatures

http://actionforcevsredshadows.blogspot.com/

As a kid I had stacks of Action force and Cobra which used to battle it out on my bedroom floor. Seeing them in 28mm just tickled me in a nostalgic way. Sadly it looks like their hasn't been an update to the blog in a while it would be great to see more.

Beards and Beer 2

2011-02-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

having been happy with test model, I've cracked on with my first unit of dwarf warriors. I'm very happy with the way they've turned out. I think the Mantic dwarves look better than the sum of the parts, by which I mean individually they're quite week sculpts with some soft detail (especially on the sides) however once painted and grouped together they look really good to my eye and I'm very happy with them.

I've also painted up an army general (complete with fiery magical hammer), the Army standard bearer and a hero to lead the dwarf regiment. These are metal miniatures from Mantic dwarf king set and are really nice models which were fun to paint up.

Another regiment is on the painting table hopefully they'll be finished soon.

Cheers Jon

Kampfgruppe Emmenthaler

2011-02-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
thought I'd take and post up some pictures of my completed late war SS Kampfgruppe Emmenthaler. This my first ever 20mm project (not counting the boyhood dabbling in Airfix)and I think it's turnned out quite well for a first attempt.

Having said that I've wanted to do some rapid fire wargaming in 20mm for years and to that end I have squirreled away various plastics kits and diecasts in 1/72 scale for some years. Getting my hands on a box of Valiant Germans finally got this project going (and kept it cheap). To keep costs down I decided to use as much of my hoard of kits as I could the result is something that resembles one of those horrible cheesy/power gamer armies that German players are always accused of. Loads of big cats and elite panzer grenadiers. To balance things out and prove I'm not some sort of uber gamer my next two Kampfgruppe are going to be based around a infantry battalion and a Volks grenadier regiment.

Anyway on to the photos all infantry are Valiant 1/72 plastic miniatures and the vehicles are from all over the place I'll try and give details if I can remember the source.

The whole Kampfgruppe laid out.

Kampfgruppe HQ led by Oberst Emmenthaler decide on their next move. The radio truck is a conversion of an old Esci Opel ambulance the car is a Ready to Roll resin. The table is scratch built.

Sdkfz222 from the Kampfgruppe HQ, an old Airfix model with a valiant crewman

SP 37mm AA attached to the HQ to give some cover from allied air power. Model is Haswega(?) with Valiant crewman.

The inevitable Panther tanks, these are re-painted diecasts off the front of a magazine about tanks sold in the UK last year.

Attached Tiger 1s from one of the SS heavy tank battalions. Again re-painted diecasts from a magazine. these came with the first issue and cost £1.99 each bargain!

Mobile fire support in the form of a Stuka zum fuss plus a spotter in a kubelwagen. Esci made the half track with rockets and Airfix the Kubel. Lack of research meant I stuck a crewman in the halftrack a few weeks latter I found out the crew retired a safe distance and fired the rockets remotely ...........

Panzer grenadier battalion HQ , the car is from the Ready to roll range

panzer grenadier company with truck. the Opel blitz is again a resin Ready to roll vehicle. I really like the ready to roll stuff cost wise they cost the same as plastic kits but there is none of the annoying sticking together to do.

The second Panzer grenadier company.

The third panzer grenadier company.

The Machine gun company and truck. the Ford truck is another Ready to roll offering.

Well that's the lot I really enjoyed this project and still have loads of Valiant Germans left so more Kampfgruppe are on the way.

Cheers Jon

Servants of the old ones.

2011-02-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

Well I've finally finished my old school Slann army for WFB 3rd edition. Of course finished is a subjective term as there are still somethings I'd like to add as time and money allow. That aside the army is now 2000pts + and all painted so it's a gameable army.

Collecting an army that the models are all OOP for has been interesting. Slann models turn up on ebay quite alot but prices can get very silly (for example a load went on ebay tonight at around £8.00 a model). So collecting has been a case of watching ebay carefully and bidding carefully. In the end I've also looked around for suitable proxies when possible and picked up quite a few damaged miniatures of ebay that I've worked on to bring them up to scratch.

Anyway below are pictures of the whole force (for now)

Above the whole army displayed in all it's glory

The armies main character models, notice the pygmy shaman (a Gazpez Arts model) at the front hopefully the first member of a full ally contingent.

A slann mage on his litter mage priest is from Gazpez Arts, while his slaves are from The Assault Groups (TAG) Aztec range.

Lesser Slann mage an original citadel miniature

A conversion of a TAG eagle knight into a Slann eagle knight

A slann war leader again another original Citadel miniature.

Lizardmen subjects fighting for their Slann overlords. Original 1980s Citadel miniatures some converted to carry TAG Aztec spears and a converted standard bearer.

Human Slave troops from TAGs Aztec range led by a Citadel Slann slave master.

A Slann spawn band. Mostly various Citadel Slann miniatures with a couple of converted Grenadier miniatures frog folk. Extra shields from GW lizardmen and a converted musician using a broken blowpiper and a plastic beastman horn.

Troglodyte subject troops fighting for the Slann. These are early 80s pore-slotta Citadel miniatures.

Venom tribe Slann from the jungles of Lustria. Highly coloured and very poisonous. Again original citadel Slann both pre and post slotta.

Slann beast handler and cold one hounds. A very rare limited release model from Citadel. I may have to proxy some different coldone hounds though (maybe some 28mm raptors) as I can't get any more coldone hounds to match these two.

Slann scouts with blowpipes. the watery bases came about from having a model who had broken of his base at the ankles so I made look like he was standing in water and carried the theme across all the bases. Again these figures are all old Citadel.

Bull Slann cold one riders, hard hitting Slann cavalry. These guys are all Citadel the unit leader is a very old pre-slotta early Slann.

Well that's it for now, I have plans for a few extras. A pygmy ally contingent, some Slann priests, a war alter and a baggage train (which are a feature of 3rd edition armies) and perhaps a unit of jungle braves.

Cheers Jon

Beards and Beer

2011-02-03T00:54:00.000-08:00

Well the undead are almost finished so yesterday I made a start on the Christmas present a new Dwarf army from Mantic for WFB 3rd edition.

I bought a Dwarf Army set and a the Mantic dwarf heroes set which gave me enough stuff for a 2000pt army.

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Dwarfs/Dwarf-Army-Set/Product/Dwarf-Army-Set-85-Figures.html

Normally this would cost £64.00 (which isn't a bad price for a 200pts army anyway) but a bit of wheeling dealing on e-bay I got both for just under £50.00.

I've stuck most of the army together and tried out a sample paint scheme (bottom two pictures) which I think came out well and will be using across the whole army.

Looking around on the net it seems Mantic dwarves are getting very mixed reviews. Personally I like the style as it's more in keeping with the old imperial dwarf look of 3rd edition WFB. The newer GW dwarfs don't really do it for me with the whole belly and feet look. Having said that some of the sculpting is very soft on the Mantic dwarves especially along the side son the models where the two halves of the moulds presumably meet.

One model in particular in the set I didn't like was the cannon. The barrel looked a bit rubbish really small and not very imposing. So I fished around in my bits box and came up with a spare GW great cannon barrel. I scraped of the imperial carvings and glued the barrel to the Mantic gun carriage then added some details in green stuff to cover up some joins, gaps and knife damage. the results can be seen in the top four pictures.

Overall I think the Mantic dwarves are great and the army deal is excellent value for money. My only disappointments where the artillery and there could have been one command sprue in the set to give all three main infantry units a command. As it is I used my bits box to scrape a third command group together, more of which later.

Now I've just got to paint 90+ dwarves...........

Cheers Jon

German Infantry

2011-02-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

Having finished my first Rapid Fire battle group (the obligatory SS panzergrenadiers and big cats). I have now started on the next battle group based around a bog standard German late war infantry battalion.

These models were finished a couple of weeks ago and are about half the battalions infantry component. I still have 16 more infantry, 2 machine guns, a 81mm mortar and a couple of guns from the regimental support companies to paint up.

These guys are valiant 1/72 miniatures a mix of the classic Germans and Germans in Normandy box sets. I want to use plenty of zeltbahns on these guys and paint them in Heer splinter pattern. I found a great painting guide here

http://www.elhiemfigures.com/files/splinter.pdf

I think the camo has gone quite well all though it seems to show up less in the photos than when your holding the models in hand.

Cheers Jon

Night of the Living Dead

2011-02-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

well I've been forced by the Doctor to take some time off work to allow my back to heal properly, the pain has subsided to manageable level but boredom has set in big time. So the last couple of days I thought I'd try some painting and see if the back could cope with sitting in one position for a long time (it can't). What I found is I could do small amounts (about half an hour at a time) before I had to get up and move around or do something else for a while to stop my back stiffening up.

So for the last couple of days I've done some painting in short bursts and managed to add a couple more units to my growing undead horde and stop my brain turning to mush watching day time telly all day.

The top pictures are zombies built from the Mantic Zombie set. I was a little disappointed when I first got them. As there are only a couple of bodies and legs available I thought they'd end up looking to regimented. However with careful choices of heads and arms plus body positions you can build quite a lot of different zombies with just a few parts. I also used some spare arms and hands from the Mantic ghouls set for extra choice and a few spare bits from the Mantic skeletons set to build the command group. Mantic now make a zombie command group but it really isn't hard to make your own.

Painting wise I tried to keep the colours close to the rest of my undead army (IE black,red,brown and bone) but I varied the skin tones so they could be told apart from my ghouls, who are also covered in blood and wearing filthy rags . Being zombies I felt it was perfectly acceptable to go over the top with the Hollywood style blood effects which I think have worked out okay.

The bottom pictures are some ghosts for my spirit host. Basically I used some old pre slotta undead citadel minis from bits box that I've had for decades. I thought about buying some miniatures but figured ghosts could look like anything so just saved myself some money and used what I had lying about. These have to be the simplest paint job ever. Paint miniature totally grey, green ink wash all over and heavy dry brush of white paint simple but pretty effective I think.

Next up are some skeleton archers.

Cheers Jon

life can really screw your hobbies -part 2

2011-01-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

First the good news I managed to fix the motorbike last weekend. Turns out the whole bike was taken out by a dodgy electrical wire so after spending several nights going through all the possible causes of the problem (carb, plugs,belt, air filter etc etc) I was just about ready to give in a call a professional when quite by luck I found the offending wire. So now I'm mobile again.

Sadly lying on a cold garage floor last week had played havoc with my back. By Sunday my back wasn't feeling to bad though, fast forward to Monday and it appears my back wasn't as good as I thought and while lugging railway sleepers around during some hard landscaping work my back gave in. So I've now been at home since Tuesday in a lot of pain . Normally being on my own at home would be hobby golden time. I just can't get comfortable enough to do any painting though. I'm bored, irritable and alternating between slightly spaced out or in pain depending on how long it's been since my last dose of pain killer tablets the doctor has given me. Looks like I'll be going back to the doctors tomorrow as so far the back shows no sign of improving.

All in all 2011 hasn't started that brightly on the hobby front .........

Return of the living dead

2011-01-23T22:53:00.001-08:00

Back last year I assembled and painted a Mantic undead army in five days here's how it turned out

http://jonswargamesminis.blogspot.com/2010/08/undead-army-in-five-days-final-results.html

The plan had always been to extend the army and this Christmas I added some more Mantic sets. First up are the Mantic Revants which I've converted up to carry double handed weapons by making the handles on their weapons longer using the spear shafts from the set.

The models were then painted up to match the rest of the army and old GW transfers added to the shields. The strange green guy at the front is supposed to be the unit leader with a magic weapon the idea was to paint the magic sword to look like it was glowing I'm not sure if I like it or not.

Next up some zombies.

Cheers Jon

Life can really screw your hobbies.

2011-01-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

Rather annoyed tonight as life has stuck a big V sign up at my hobby time again. Coming home from work tonight my little 125 bike decided to pack in. As a non driver my bike is my main form of transport and the only way I can get down to the club for a game (due to the usual rubbish public transport system).

Of course sods law dictates that tomorrow was going to be my first game of 2011. Jim and I had decided to on a game of AK-47 (one of my favorite games) and it's been a while since Jim's country of Nbuto has been invaded. However I have now had to cancel and will end up spending tomorrow night up to my arms in oil and engine bits trying to work out why my bike won't go. only one word for it really

Bugger...........................

Kampfgruppe HQ

2011-01-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

At last I've finally managed to get my first painting of 2011 done and finished of my SS Kampfgruppe HQ for rapid fire.

As you can see it has six figures (all Valiant some converted), a Sdkfz 222 A/C (Airfix), a 37mm SP AA (Haswega), a radio truck (Esci) and a Stoewer car (ready to roll).

The HQ should also have a couple of supply trucks and a Bergpanzer, the trucks I'll do some time. As yet though I haven't found a reasonably priced (bearing in mind it's more of eye candy thing than a useful bit of kit) bergpanzer in 1/72.

Next up I've got a German heer infantry battalion to finish (half the infantry are nearly finished, but that still leaves all the support weapons and another 16 infantry) . I've also got my US armoured task force to do. I've put the yanks on a brief hold though while I wait for some stowage packs I've ordered to turn up. I'm using quite a few armourfast kits which while nicely priced and easy to put together are just to plain so I'm hoping the stowage will make them more interesting (and a bit more realistic).

Cheers Jon

First game of 2011

2011-01-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

2011 seems to have coincided with my son finding some interest in dads little men. He tends to drift in an out of wargaming (well his only 9) but does own a space marine army for 40K (which I painted for him) and a small New kingdom Egyptian army for WAB which we painted together.

On Monday he decided he wanted a game so we went biblical I took my sea peoples and he took his NKE. both armies weighing in at a hefty 830 something points (We really must paint the rest up to have two 1500 pt armies)

My army had two warbands of 20 warriors, 10 Lybian skirmishers and four chariots one with my army general.

My sons army had two 10 figure archer units, 2 chariots one with his general, a unit of 8 axemen, a unit of 12 spearmen and a unit of 12 sea people mercenaries.

The game lasted five turns the first couple saw me heading towards his battle line under heavy bow fire that wiped out my Lybians. My warriors charged in and saw off his axemen but failed to rout his archers. Which in turn saw my warriors counter attacked by my sons sea peoples and chariots (in the flank) my warriors routed and where cut down. My chariots attacked and destroyed his chariots before failing to make any impact on his spearmen (losing 2 chariots in return). At that point I conceded as I was surrounded by hostile units (and it was my sons bed time).

The pictures above show the scene just before the start of the battle.

Cheers Jon

It's oh so quiet....

2011-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

If it seems a bit quiet on here it's not that I'm not doing anything on the hobby front, just not anything worth posting about. I could tell you about the couple of hours I spent going through and re-organising my paints but it wouldn't be much fun.

All my Christmas goodies have turned up now. Sadly a couple of my orders were wrong so I'm now trying to sort those out. Mostly I've ordered a lot of plastic for Christmas so instead of painting I'm spending lots of time cutting, cleaning and sticking together lots of multi part plastic which really doesn't seem worth posting pictures of if I'm honest.

It's a two pronged attack on the hobby front. At home I'm putting together my Rapid Fire US armoured task force. At work in my lunch break I'm putting the second round of my Mantic undead army together. Hopefully by the end of next week I can start to get some painting going and then have some nice pics to post up.

The only other thing I've been doing is putting some new scenery together for my wargames table hopefully some pictures of my efforts will be posted up soon.

Cheers Jon

Happy new year

2011-01-02T01:18:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone!

Right now the festive period (never a very productive time on the hobby front for me) is over it's time to look forward to what I might try and achieve with my hobby time this year. The long cold days of January and February are always a bit depressing but luckily Christmas resulted in quite a haul of stuff to keep me going through the second half of winter. I got

100 more plastic undead from Mantic to finish the undead army I started last year.

90 odd plastic dwarves from Mantic to put together a new army of short bearded ones.

60 odd Valiant GIs plus some half tracks and tanks to make a Task force.

A few extra vehicles for my German Rapid fire forces my first Kampfgruppe is so close to being finished .

I've also promised myself some new scenery this year for my games room as I want to try a bit more solo gaming. I hope to still get down to the club once a month but life with children and wife does have a habit off curtailing my gaming so solo seems the way to go to get in a few more games.

Finally I'm going to have a good hard look at my various unfinished projects and stuff and clear out those that will never get finished or used to the great ebay in the sky. Sometimes I find half finished projects and such like tend to just hang round like a bad smell in the wargames room, you feel guilty for not finishing them but you know (deep down) you never will, best just to get rid I find.

First candidate for a sort out is my AK-47 stuff. I love the game and have loads of stuff for it but a lot of the stuff I have is dis-jointed and doesn't fit well with my main AK armies. My plan is just to keep my two main and nicest armies (the Zumatans and Lumatans) and then ebay the rest.

I've also got some projects that just need a final push to finish. In this case My Slann and Elf armies for WFB (3rd edition) both are so close to being finished you smell the varnish I just need to put that final push in.

Oh well It doesn't look like I'll be short of things to do this year, now if I can just win the lottery and give up work I might get it all done.

Cheers Jon

Raventhorpe Ready to Roll trucks

2010-12-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

Finally my Panzer grenadiers have some transport. I decide to go for trucks as I'm planning to do a genzpart battalion for the 21st panzer division in Normandy (with all those interesting french equipment).

After a bit of research I decided to go for the Raventhorpe ready to roll range

http://www.rapid-fire.uk.com/ready_to_roll.htm

I bought a Stoewer car, a Horch car, three Opel blitz and a ford v300. Generally I was impressed

Pros

No assembly required

Cost (cheaper than metal, similar cost to plastic kits)

Already based (I like to base my vehicles)

Cons

They were a bit rough in places, big lumps of resin are not that easy to clean up.

The area between the vehicle and the base is solid which I'm not keen on

I painted them up using magic wash and dry brushing. I really should do the number plates but at the moment I'm hoping to find some water slide transfers to do them, as painting them is a non starter.

With the trucks done I just need to finish the Kampfgruppe HQ and a couple SP 20mm AA guns to finish my first Rapid fire force, hopefully in time to get some games in the new year.

Cheers Jon

Bargain rule sets from Northstar

2010-12-16T13:16:00.000-08:00

Well winter is here and rather predictably my painting output has dropped like a stone. For those who don't know my wargames room/ painting area is my garage which is at the bottom of the garden, while I've done it out nicely boarding up all the walls, adding a new floor and installing a heater. This time of year it is still rather cold and unappealing when weighed up against surfing the net or watching telly in a nice warm house. Add in the snow and sub zero temperatures, sick children, the coming of Christmas and work and painting wise the last two and half weeks have produced very little on the hobby front.

Having said that a couple of nights ago I forced myself to go down the garage and paint up my newly arrived Ready to Roll trucks for my SS panzer grenadiers from Chiltern miniatures. They painted up surprisingly quickly so hopeful some pictures will be posted up in the next couple of days.

In the mean time I picked up three sets of Chris peers rules going cheap from North Star
http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?spo=1&page=1

First I picked up armies in crisis which is basically a WW2 version of Contemptible Little Armies with a few bolt ons. Not a big fan of CLA mostly because I feel the no moving and firing rule encourages both sides to play too defensively. Mostly there is little advantage to moving into firing range of the enemy who can then fire on you knowing you can 't return fire for a turn. Having said that they're simple and quick and I'm tempted to use them for solo games where I can tinker with the rules without upsetting anyone.

Second I picked up Empire of the Steppes which covers purely the 90 odd years of the great Mongol conquests. Again this appears to be CLA with add bolt ons for period feel. Having said that it looks like it would give a good game and really tries to capture steppe nomad warfare something many ancients rules don't do very well in my opinion. There are also around thirty army lists which are interesting and appear well researched

Last but not least is Advance the Flag ACW rules. These look very interesting, there are some similarities with Chris Peers other rule sets but this set is aimed at Corps level actions so a base of multiple miniatures represents a regiment and four bases a brigade. I'm quite taken with these I bought them thinking I might do something with my Perry plastic ACW miniatures as they are aimed at 28s. I actually think they would look better with 2/6/10mm miniatures though as four 28mm miniatures representing a regiment looks a bit odd to me. Of the three sets I think these are the ones that are most likely to form a new project for 2011.

Cheers Jon

Panzerwerfer and Opel radio truck

2010-11-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

A couple more vehicles for my German Rapid Fire project. Both these plastic kits where knocking about in my kits box both are made by ESCI (which probably tells you something about their age). Quite frankly they where horrid kits to put together lots of fiddly bits and instructions that miss out half the components do not make for a fun time.

The first five pictures are of an Opel blitz ambulance that I've converted into a radio truck. Not much of a conversion really I added a bedstead aerial from my bits box and some stowage made from some bits of balsa and plastic covered with some PVA soaked kitchen towel. I also added some plasticard windows to the cab rather than leaving the cab open and having to bugger about with a driver.

The second set of pictures is of a sdkfz 251 with rockets. I saw a picture in wargames mag somewhere of one of these set up firing it's rockets so I thought I'd give it a go. I assembled the rocket boxes and then drilled out the rockets an added wire. I dipped the wire in PVA and covered them in cotton wool to represent smoke from the rockets and then glued them into the boxes. I also added a Valiant miniatures officer for some interest and replaced the original MGs with Valiant ones. I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out however it's quite flimsy so I don't think this one will be making any trips to the club.

Cheers Jon