Catch Up 3 - Weird War II

 

I was the first person to bring Bolt Action to our club, early in first edition, but as usual I had to go about it differently and I did it in 1/72 scale. When others developed an interest they all went full Warlord and my poor British and Germans got left behind. They've seen a few games of Iron Cross or Chain of Command over the years but things have been quiet for them. Until now...

I flirted with the idea of Konflikt 47 and Weird War but it wasn't really doable in 1/72. Until now...

Enter stage left my 3D printer and a ton of free (or at least cheap) Weird War STL files. Add to that an awesome set of rules in the shape of Xenos Rampant and it's full steam ahead!

I was nearly sucked into K47 second edition, but the new fluff / lore is awful so the idea was swiftly rejected, and I'll create my own narrative for scenarios and a campaign kicking off in '44.

I found a lot of free STL files intended for Dust-48 and a few weapons that looked the part that could be sliced in, starting with some Pz IV's and a Panther. All of them have historical turrets that can be swapped in anytime.

3 Pz IV's, two with rail guns and 1 with a gravity projector

Closer look at the gravity projector

The panther with a gravity projector, in a heavily converted turret

The last vehicle for now is a spider Panzer with auto-cannon. The crewman is plastic from Valiant. In common with all the other vehicles here, it needs balkenkreuz (?) adding to finish.

It's not all about the vehicles of course! Occult forces are at play and the Dead are restless... Here are my Wehrmacht zombies from Kyoushuneko Miniatures.

This weekend I'll be statting up two simple Late War forces without Weird War assets for Xenos Rampant to give the rules a try. Then the weird stuff will trickle in over the course of an escalating narrative campaign. Next time, the German's achieve interesting results tampering with DNA!

Catch Up 2 - Middle Earth Wargaming (MESBG and SOBAH)

 If I'd restarted this blog a month earlier, Middle Earth wouldn't have even featured. Mourning the loss of Forest Dragon STL files on Patreon, I spent an evening looking at where else I might  spend my money and was drawn to Davale Games who do a wonderful range of proxies for GW's Middle Earth range.

I haven't played MESBG in a long while. I'm not sure if I've totally skipped one or two editions of the rules but my last game was definitely pre-Hobbit and possibly even pre-blog!

Regardless, I had to (re)start somewhere so I've bought the latest edition of the rules and found an excellent online army builder. Despite the fact that I have fully painted Dwarf, Moria, Rivendell, Minas Tirith and Mordor armies I have decided to hit the ground running with matched forces for Arnor. I have the very old supplement from eons ago and I'm currently putting together the forces to be able to play all of the narrative scenarios within.

I'm also looking to downscale and play small games using Song of Blades and Heroes, and possibly upscale as well, to play games with Midgard and/or Dragon Rampant.

Needless to say, I've gone in to this with all guns blazing but I'm only sharing figures I've painted. The grey resin mountain in my wargames room is my business, not yours!

First up, Buhrdur and his buddies. The scenarios I want to play needs three Hill Trolls and their leader Buhrdur (Arathorn slayer!). GW produce lovely models covering everything I need but at £72 for three figures it was never going to happen! Enter stage left Davale Games and their wonderful proxies...

This is my Buhrdur proxy...

And these are his two Hill Troll buddies that the scenarios demand...

I'm pretty stoked at how they turned out. 😁😁😁😁

About 20 years ago, no exaggeration, I bought a bunch of  GW Dunedain / Rangers of the North (RotN) at a wargames show, getting there about 5 minutes before my mate Sean who would have snapped them up. No problem if I slap some paint on them and get them on the table so we can both use them, right? Yeah, that never happened, but 20 years later I've got the first six done (and the rest undercoated).

The latest edition has combined RotN and Dunedain into one profile. Fair enough, as the only difference was armour (+1 Df to the RotN). To differentiate between them I have chosen to depict the RothN with grey cloaks with chain mail and the lower Df Dunedain in green.

I present, 20 years after purchase, the first six Dunedain...

Well, it's a start... Time for a little scrap using SOBAH!

The next rush job; more Menoth painted for Warmachine.

Sean is participating in a Warmachine Journeyman league and had recently moved up to 25 pt. so I agreed to match this. After a little procrastinating I realised I had just three evenings left for painting. To make life easier I decided to use all of the 15 pt. that I had used in the last two games so that left 10 pt. to paint and base. Uh oh!

Long story short, I finished basing my battle group 15 minutes before Sean was due to arrive. Here they are, in all their crimson glory.

 Vassal Mechanic - 1 pt.

 Temple Flameguard UA - 2 pt.

 Temple Flameguard (min) - 4 pt.

I was going to paint another min. unit at the same time but dropped them on the floor... :(

 Choir of Menoth (min) - 2 pt.

(I painted the whole choir...)

Wracks - 1 pt.

Sean arrived, the game took place. Details coming soon...

Warmachine Wreck Markers

I really like the Menoth wreck markers for destroyed warjacks but they're expensive for what they are and they're not really a 'playing piece'. Flicking through Ebay the other day I spotted some resin bases for sale with metallic / mechanical debris and figured they were just the job. They arrived Monday and they're the first thing in a long time that I've painted the very day I got them. I only got around to photographing them today though.

Not wrecks as such but it does at least look like a 'jack might have taken a pasting in the vicinity. Each one has been matched to my normal bases and has just enough crimson and white to mark it out as Menoth.

Weekend Challenge V

OK, so the weekend has long passed but (thanks to the bank holiday) I did complete the painting task and I'm pretty chuffed with the results. Pinker then expected if I'm honest but I really like the look.

Alternate metal Kreoss1 (is that the same as pKreoss?)

 Classic metal Castigator in classic Fonzie pose.

 

 

 Revengers.

Group shot. 15 pts. ready to play.

Weekend Challenge IV

After a full evening's painting I finally finished the rest of the 15 pt. battlegroup; Kreoss, a Castigator and the second Revenger. Now for basing, ready for tomorrow's gaming.

Weekend Challenge III

Rainy morning and so with the gardening schedule pushed back I've started painting the first 'jack. This took way longer than I expected, even with the limited palette so the alternative 15 pt. battle group is looking unlikely at the moment. I've gone vanilla Menoth with a conventional colour scheme. First photo is just after blocking in the colours.

It's particularly garish and very 'Hello Kitty' but it'll calm down with a good ink wash. The pink is Warlord Purple from the Game Color range. Thank goodness I'm using a white primer, I'd have needed 10 coats over black! Second photo is after a wash, white highlights and painting in the eyes.

Well, I think I've managed the tabletop standard I aspire to; I don't have the patience for anything else. The pink is now the crimson I was aiming for and I'm happy to move on to the other figures with this scheme now. I'll base them all together and then show off the battle group in another post.

Weekend Challenge II

The 15 pt. force I've selected to start with consists of Kreoss and 3 jacks, a Castigator and 2 Revengers. A 15 pt. force normally seems to fit in a unit as well but the three Menoth jacks are expensive pts. wise. All the figures were undercoated in black or badly painted, both Revengers were damaged, one had an arm that had snapped in two different places.

I drilled and pinned the damaged arm and took the opportunity to repose the figure as the two Revengers were almost identical. The second Revenger's 'loin cloth' was missing. The ebay lot had come with several mystery fabric loin cloths that didn't fit any of the figures so I added one of these. The Castigator is in a weird pose, like it sagged while the glue was drying. I decided to live with it, not knowing where the joins were to break them apart.

The next big decision was base colour. I nearly always favour black but for Menoth thought white might be worth a try / good idea. It'll certainly take me out of my comfort zone wrt. painting. A quick spray of Halford's acrylic primer and I'm done for the night.

It seems unlikely that I'll manage 25 pts. for the games on Tuesday but if I get the chance I'll paint a few figures for a variant 15 pt. list. I've fixed up minimum strength Temple Flameguard and Choir units and sprayed them in case I get the chance. Points wise they'll replace one Revenger. More tomorrow.

Song of Blades and Heroes

Just over a year ago I purchased Song of Drums and Shakos, the fast play Napoleonic skirmish rules from Ganesha Games. We played a single game at the club (granted it was ACW...) and it went down well. I purchased the expansion More Songs of... and determined to play more... I went to Salute 2013 intending to purchase some Napoleonic figures but I ran out of money and it never happened (but it will, one day!)

Squad level ACW fun.

A year later and I've purchased the fantasy variant of the game, Song of Blades and Heroes. I suppose the proof of the game is in the playing but I'm convinced these are my cup of tea. I've started throwing together a couple of 300 point warbands and you should expect a batrep soon.

The first warband consists of dwarfs. I managed to pull enough figures out of my Warhammer army to throw a list together and a few extra figures for variant lists. They were all already painted but needed re-basing to my Mk III standard.

Wizard, Hero/Leader, Troll Slayer

Veterans, Young Dwarfs, Crossbows

The second warband is composed of goblins. First up again, some old figures that I just needed to re-base.

Night Goblins with Leader/Hero

They have a troll!

Night Goblin / Common Goblin Archers

Goblin Shamans

Not having a finished army to cherry pick figures from I had to paint up the rest of the figures I needed over the weekend. Like the dwarfs I now have enough spares for a couple of different lists.
  

Common Goblins with Hero/Leader

A major Hero/Leader and Squig Herder with... Squigs

First game on Tuesday hopefully so expect a batrep shortly and maybe a fully fledged campaign not long after.