Yearly Totals

Hi Kids, Well, it was a rough year for painting, but not for buying. Although my purchasing is off from prior years, it's still a sizable 781 figs. Painting came in a poor second at 252 figs. Some folks might think I have a few too many projects, too. I'm one of them. This year I bought for FoW, Nappies, TS&TF, Prehistoric Animals, Moderns, Pulp, Spanish-American War (which I insist calling SPAM), the long sought-after Rhodesian Light Infantry, and even a fistful for (Gawd help me!) Star Trek (TOS, of course). The majority of the painting were Zulus, Pulp, Animals, Moderns, and even a 25mm Torpedo Boat (although it fits in the Pulp arena).

Went to a buncha cons; Fall-In, Historicon, Siege of Augusta, Guns of August, Williamsburg Muster, Southern Front, and Spring Fever. Even MACE. Maybe someday you lot will venture more than 15 miles from home. (had to sneak that one in there)

Played some local and not-so-local games everywhere from my basement to the Cage, Charlotte to Raleigh. The Sword & The Flame, Flames of War, Moderns, Disposable Heroes, GQ3 Naval, Nappies, Chassepot & Needlegun, Pulp .45, Price of Glory, Warhammer Great War, Check Your 6 Jet Age.

Who knows what the future may bring? Anybody up for 1:1 scale Naval?

2010 Hobby Review

Time for my yearly hobby review.

My paint has taken a hit from too many projects syndrome. My total of finished painting is only twenty eight models this year. I have a pile of Chinese Warlord troops almost finished, a platoon of modern militia almost finished and a pile of 15mm soviet WWII troops almost finished but they are not getting finished tonight so they will go on next years book.

For Warhammer Fantasy Battle I have added to my Beastmen, Skaven and Dark Elves armies. I started the year working on my Beastman army until the eighth edition release gimped the list is was building to. Later I stared back on my Dark Elves and I am still working on them as my current fantasy army.

For Warhammer 40k I didn't really add any models but worked on my Adeptus Mechanicus imperial guard and Chaos Marine Deathguard. Two projects stared for 40k is the Nurgle Contagions and a Ork Gargant. After a set back casting the wheels for them, the Contagions have made good progress and I hope to get them fieldable for the world largest apocalypse game on January 22nd. The Gargant project is still in collections mode. I am slowly gathering parts and will get it built one day.

For Flames of War I finally finished the British Deacons that I have had since I first started playing FOW. I used them in a North Africa game and made the Germans blink. I am still adding to my Soviets and picking up some Germans to eventually make a 13th SS Handschar army. To support my planned Germans I have made a master and casted up some German half tracks. I will need a bunch of them to field a fully mechanized panzer grenadier company.

For Warmachine I picked up a few more warjacks for my Cygnar army and even played a few games.

For Disposable Heroes I added models to my Warlord Chinese and WWII Japanese. I picked up the Mare Nostrum pdf for the Italians and plan to add some more figures to my Italian Paratroopers. I painted up a bunch of the assault group African militia to act as Grom operatives in a game using the Seek out, Close with and Destroy supplement.

One thing I did do in 2010 is get in a lot more gaming. With the Catawba gamers I played Fire and Fury, Warhammer ancients English civil war, Fireball Forward WWII, The Sword and The Flame and some boardgames. I played in an Apocalypse battle organized by the The Charlotte Area Arms Race. I attended the Game-On GW gamesday at the Cage again this year. I traveled with the lads to Game Connection in Knightdale for a fun game of Price of Glory and to the Basement of heaped miniatures for Chasepot and Needlegun, .45 adventure, and General Quarters III.

Blog wise I averaged one post a week, which is what I aimed for. the most viewed post was my Lasgun conversion post followed by my Adeptus Mechanicus Conversion tutorial.

Thanks for following and I hope for another year of good gaming.

Franco-Prussian War Practice Game

Hi Kids, A couple weeks ago I ran a practice game of Larry Brom's "Chassepot & Needlegun" rules for the 1870 Franco-Prussian War in the Basement of Heaped Miniatures. I had signed up to run the game for the Catawba Gamers at their December meeting, and figured I better have at least a loose grasp of the rules before letting those hardcore gamers run wild. The situation was the mythical French breakout from the fortress city of Metz, the Frogs trying to escape off the board to the north, pushing through the blocking Prussian units. The game seemed to run pretty smoothly, and the overwhelming weight of the more numerous French units slowly crushing the Prussian defense. The Prussian highlight of the game (at least in my humble opinion): Scott Johnson charging the French artillery early in the game, getting blasted on the way in and still managing to wipe out the French battery! Blue Max'es for everybody! I learned a few things, too: I need a bigger table.

Christmas comes to My Little World

After years of trying to find a hobby Christmas gift for me, my Inlaws hit it out of the park this year with an air compressor and airbrush set up. I have been contemplating getting an airbrush set up for years but never have. Now no excuses.

My main plan is to use it for base coating models in the color I want and not the closest color I can find in a spray can or having to use a brush and spend the extra time that involves. I am reading all the paperwork with it before I fire it up and get painting but I will get it going soon.

Contagion Head Piece

I took a day off from work for a long weekend and made some progress on the Contagions.

I did some rough measurements and decided a three inch by three and a half inch piece of two inch foam would be the right size for the head blank on the contagion models. Once again the foam was a scrap piece I found thrown away at a construction site. the piece is a little beat up and dirty but that just adds character to a warped daemonic engine of Nurgle.

After getting the blocks cut out I roughly notched the block to over hang the hull. Then marked the block and cut out the channel for the gun to fit in. Then it was a series of cut and trim to get the blank to set how I wanted it.

After getting the blank to fit over the gun I started to cut it down into a skull shape. I left the cuts rough so that the clay will have a place to grip better when I start to sculpt it on. I also notched the head on the sides to give another place for the clay to grab.

The skull from the other side.

Now I just need to finish the other two heads and then glue them to the hulls. Before I glue them on I have to refill and sand down some of the joints on the styrene edging. Once again my method of "close enough" measuring has left some bad gaps in the edging, but I also stick to the "Who's worried about right angles and square corners on a warped Daemonic Engine anyway?"

These are going to be simple models compared to others I have seen online, but I built these to play with, to be handled by less than careful players and to survive the transport to and from the game with a minimum of breakage. I like the super detailed models and could build them that way if I wanted to but in the end, if somebody has a comment about how these look, I will worry about it when they bring three built and painted contagions to the game too.

Contagion Progress

I have made a bit more progress on my battery of Contagion Daemonic Engines for Apocalypse games.
I based the hull on a piece of one inch foam that I covered in thin cardboard.I then edged the hull with 7.9mm styrene angle from plastruct. The hull gun barrel is a 105mm length of 3/4 inch pvc pipe glued into a cavity carved from the hull. The trebuchet support side is made from some wooden moulding I picked up by dumpster diving at a construction site. The moulding is an off cut of some sort and not square so I ran it through a table saw to trim off the worst of the angle before I cut them to length. The center support piece is about six inches tall. It is only mocked up in the picture with a little glue. I plan to brad them together and eventually add a bit more detail.
I have all the wheels drilled out and after I glue in the dowels I use for axles I can start painting them. I haven't decided whether I will leave the wheels separate like on my plague towers or go ahead and permanently attach them.

Below is the three hulls in a group shot. I have since finished edging the hulls and now have to fill the gaps in the corners.

I still have to carve a head shape dolly for the front of all three and then sculpt the front faces. I plan to sub assemble the pieces for the three trebuchets and then attach them to the hulls. I have a couple ideas for the trebuchet sling and ammunition but need to do a test piece first. When these are finished that should have the basic models done and then leave the detailing and the painting.

World Largest Apocalypse Game

The guys over at the Apocalypse 40k forums are organizing the worlds largest Apocalypse game on 22Jan11. The lads in the Apoc-eclipse game club have decided to join in the fun. Matt has arranged for the club to be able to play in the game at All, Fun and Games in Cary NC. Everybody is invited.

I plan to be there and have ramped up my Contagion production. I have made a bit of progress and will post about it later. I don't know if I will be able to use all of the Plague Towers and the Contagions in the game but I plan to take them and loan them out to other people to play.