Best Game in World of Tanks Computer Game

Hi Kids,  Every once and awhile something miraculous happens, and I guess tonight it was my turn in the computer game "World of Tanks."  Ordinarily I might kill one enemy tank before I get killed myself. Stress on "Might." You can't imagine how shocked and amazed I was after the game pictured here.  Not only was I on the winning team (which doesn't happened as often as I would like) but everything was working!  All my rolls came up 100%!  The moon was full, the monsters are out, the stars are right! All my opponents' shots went wide!  If I were in Legas I'd be running for my life right now.  I know these numbers might not look like much to you players who are actually good, but since I stink at this game I just thought I'd celebrate and post it for everyone.  Yes, it might be obnoxious to pat myself on the back like this, but that's why I have such long arms!  The tank I was driving is on the left, all the enemy tanks I encountered on the right. After all the mayhem I only had about 8 shells left.

 

 Here's my team's scores.  Yep, that's me up at the top!  And yes, that's pretty much a first!

 Here's the detailed report.  Come to think of it, my birthday is tomorrow. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?   Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

 I Was The Man!  At least for one game! Too bad tomorrow I'll be back to driving into boulders and off cliffs.

World of Tanks is a free internet game if you'd like to try it out.  Mostly WW2 but they have increased it all the way to T-54 and M48.  And it includes all those ridiculous never built tanks like the IS7, Maus, E100, and all the USA Heavies like M103, T29,30,32 and 34.  Otherwise US couldn't compete.  Although be warned if you are a rivet counter your head might explode due to the stats and game mechanics.  Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Oop Vampire Counts Grave Guard

Vampire Counts October has me digging around in my collection of old Warhammer blisters. One thing lacking from by army was Grave Guard. I really like their Killing Blow ability and back in the day picked up a few blisters cheap from one of the many local store closings in 2005.

A blast from the past. I contemplated selling them on Evilbay but after checking how much they cost now ($41.25 for ten models) I decided to keep them and get them on the table.

The Grave Guard assembled. The command models are from a later release but they work for me and bring the unit up to fifteen models. I would really like to field them as a larger unit and will probably fill the back ranks with some skeletons or tomb stones when I want to go big. The bad thing is that grave Guard no longer can take halberds. They also have a shield strap molded on them. So,I have been told, the current Vampire Counts book allows Grave guard hand weapons and a shield but no shield if they have great weapons. I am going to put shields on them, much easier than trying to grind the straps off and you never know when GW will add back the option for Grave Guard to have halberds in the next army book.  I plan to just make sure my opponent knows what I paid the points for them to be equipped with before the game starts.

The Latest shot of the Grave Guard. Still very work in progress but good enough I would put them on the table for a friendly game.

ColKG

Vampire Counts Fell Bats finished

Vampire Counts October has another success. I finally finished up my group of Fell Bats. I bought them back in 2005 and they formed a central part of my 2006 GameOnGw Fantasy league army. They have since either set in a box or been pushed back on the painting table. I believe my original plan was to paint them with flesh colored wings and that held up the process. I decided I wanted them painted and in the display case with the rest of the army, so I came up with a brand new plan. So, some touch ups, several dry brushes, a couple washes and some detailing and highlights and they are ready for the table.

Most of the details were to the heads and fangs. When I first built them I was frustrated with the original plastic fight stands, so I replaced them all with a piece of brass rod and some green stuff to hold it in place. Then filled the hole in the belly and re-sculpted the detail to hide the gap.

Another shot of the spikes on the back of another.

I like to call this one "Toothy"

A group shot of all eight. I fielded two units of three back in 2006 and had a couple extra. I paid nine dollars for a blister of two fell bats back in 2005 but I noticed the other day, that it now costs $49.50 for a box of three fine cast Fell Bats. If  I didn't already have a start on an army I doubt I could afford to even start any army now.

ColKG

Vampire Ladies of the Night and more

Vampire Counts October is speeding along. I have pulled out some of my old Lahmian Vampire ladies and some other odds and ends to finish painting.

The Ladies of the Night. My collection of Lahmian vampires. The last time I really played the Vampire Counts, my army was lead by Lady Etelka, a Lahmian Vampress riding a Winged Nightmare. She lead my army to the semi finals of the 2006 GameOnGw fantasy league armed only with some wrist bands of black gold and a sword of might.

Neferata, Night Queen, Queen of Lahmia, First of the vampires. This is a model from sixth edition I believe but I don't think she has any rules in the current Vampire Counts army book.

A few more Armored Skeletons to add to a unit.

A Doom Wolf, I picked up in a trade. It was mixed in with some chaos hounds but I stripped it down and repainted it to match my dire wolves. A few more highlights and a some work on the base and it should be good to go.

ColKG

Ogre Macrotures Proxy a-go-go!

Hi Kids,  I'm in a picture-taking mood and dug the Ogre Macrotures (aka 1/60 or 25mm) out.  Admittedly very few of these are actually miniatures from the Ogre line; in fact, only the 10 GEV's are from that game.  The Proxy King strikes again!  In my defence I'd like to point out the GEV was the only one ever made, no other tanks from Ogre every made it to this scale.  The other stuff is all avaliable in 1/300, see prior post.  So I went out into the marketplace and dug up some stuff, mainly based on what looks cool. I know 40K stuff looks cool, but that can be a blog all its own.  So here we have two shots of the whole lineup.  Yes, once again we see the world famous triple grey & black Imperial Army camo of the 13th DBLE.  I know, I know, how long is it going to take for me to get off my butt and paint the rest?!??!?

 The vast majority of these vehicles are from KryomekUSA.  All their vehicles are interchangable, by that I mean the type of vehicle (tank, APC, assault gun,etc) can be ordered with any of 4 suspensions (tracks, wheels, grav, or hover).  Also, they are an absolute snap to put together, maxxing out at something like 12 parts. They also make a wide variety of alien bugs and human sci-fi figs. Yes, they are still in business, for those of you who want to finish off your bug collections.

 These are the Assault Guns.  I choose to get mine with wheels.  Not really a very impressive looking thing, I think they could use a bigger gun.

 APC's.  The two on the left are in the original camo, back when I was using them for 40K.  Sorry, I just never liked the Chimera design.  Sacrilege, I know.

 Brace yourselves, and honest to God Steve Jackson produced vehicle! 10 GEV macrotures, which means 1/60 scale.  Only WestWind produces vehicles in this scale, and they only do WW2.  Every once and awhile somebody else makes a plastic model or diecast vehicle in this scale, but they are rare.  I was just checking ebay, these bad boys have sold for $76-80 each.  Holy Cow!

 For those diehard Ogre fans, two Chi Cub's! A GEV with an arty on the back. This vehicle was from an article in SpaceGamer magazine or the Ogre Book, I can't remember which.  Actual models are from Ground Zero Games, but they have sold the 25mm molds to someone else.  Go Toronto Bluejays!

 A normal cargo truck, and two APC's from Ground Zero Games.  Yes, I need more cargo trucks!  Got a few around here someplace....

 Two APC's from Ultra-cast.  Unfortunately, they closed before I got off my butt and ordered more.  I really like the 6 and 8 wheelers they made.  That thing on the right, I just can't remember where it came from.  Maybe Armorcast?  It looks like it could proxy a Bopper from the Rivets game, but I can't imagine any other use.  Rivets, now there's a game I haven't played in years!  At one point Martian Metals produced minis for it in 1/300, but that was a looooooooooong time ago!

 Missile tanks, with tracks!  I just like the way they look!  I wish I could kitbash a mobile howitzer, but it would be tough to get that Zermitt paste look so common on Kryomek stuff.  If I could just get ahold of some kinda large gun, I could mount it on the rear deck of one of these.  Hey, Scott, you have a lot of spare time.....

 Another Ground Zero Games kit, a VTOL Gunship.  It has no place in Ogre, but it looks cool.

The first Krymek stuff I ever bought, Main Battle Tanks, complete with tread suspension. The three in the front row were painted for my 40K Marine stuff, and you know what they say, "Death before repaint!"  The rest are what I used back when the Armored Company first came out for the Imperial Army.  At the time I had intended to paint numbers on the side to identify them, but then I realized that would take effort.  You know the rest....
Now I know what you're thinking.... what about all those VOID & 40K & assorted vehicles that remain paintless?  I'm a slacker.  I can only do so much.
A few of you might remember my dream of playing "Backyard Ogre," where we take this stuff out into the real world and play a game, maybe using 1 yard = one hex.  I still need to paint up the rest to make it a reality!  Like all those Heavy Gear Rafm 1:87 to use as power armor infantry.  Or maybe I could use all those Kryomek biped robots!  The only monkey wrench in the plan in what to use for an Ogre.  The Bauhaus Grizzly would work based on number of guns and sheer size, but I wish some maniac out there would produce an Ogre in 25mm scale.  Remember Sci-fi City and those 4 foot long MkV's?  Those were the good ole days!

Ogre Miniatures Pictures / Kickstarter Rant

 Hi Kids, With all the brouhaha going on with the latest Kickstarter edition of Ogre, I figured it was a perfect time to drag the lads out of storage and get some shots onto the net, just to show that too much is never enough.  And yes, I have about this many not painted yet. I don't call it "The Basement of Heaped Miniatures" for nuthin.  I didn't count the unpainted ones, but they come to about 5lbs (I'm guessing).  After all, only posers count unpainted minis!!!!!!  I could fly into a rage and spout off regarding the latest Kickstarter news; a 5 month delay while Steve has our $923,000.00 (using such amazingly weak excuses as "The box is really big!"  Has no one at SJG ever bought a TV? They come in big boxes. Cardboard is not cutting edge technology.), but I've decided to rise above all that. Well, maybe just a sucker punch every now and then......

 Here we have the only two Ogres I've painted for myself, Ol has the other two dozen.  Eagle eyed viewers might notice the MkV has 6 primaries and 2 secondaries.  No, this was not some custom design Ogre, it's just built with the original parts from the package, the first one I ever did. I guess the packer was hitting crack that day.  It's a 20 yr old Ral Partha.  Of course, if you believe in WYSIWYG, this thing is a Combat Monster!  I mean, DAMN. SIX MAIN GUNS!!!!!

A pile of GEV's, including some substitutes. I never liked the light GEV design, so used Battletech Savanahmasters instead.  Of course, they're from Ral Partha too, so I could argue they are authentic. Or official. Or something.  Yes, those are shark mouths painted on them.  I saw a picture of someone else's paint jobs that way and copied it cause it looks sooooo cool.


 Here we have some Heavy and Missile tanks.  The ones in back were painted 20+ years ago, back when I wanted to be able to tell different platoons apart, hence the various camo schemes. Repaint? Maybe in the next life.  Too much unpainted stuff to RE-paint anything.

 What's that in the back row?  It's some kind of mobile howitzer some some other manufacturer.  Too old to remember.  Stan Johansen maybe?

 An assortment of Combine vehicles.  I gotta admit, I really dig the Pan-Euro designs a LOT more than the Combine ones.  Maybe that's why I own twice as many..... Although you can definitely tell I like some designs better than others.  20+ heavy tanks, 3 light tanks, for example.  Ewwwwww.....  And yes, that triple grey and black camo is the same as my Imperial Army tanks; Leman Russ etc etc.  Find something you like and stick with it!

 Yes, yes, those multischeme vehicles ruin the Soviet-Juggernaut effect.  Bummer!  You know, it'd only take a minute to repaint 'em....

 Mobile howitzers a go-go!  Yes, I do have some emplaced guns someplace.  Still looking.....

 A pile of GEV's, one of my favorite designs!  Maybe we should start a petition to go back to the original 4/4 movement rates!  Play balance? What's that?  And while we're on the topic of GEV's, maybe I should take this opportunity to point out I also have 10 GEV's from SJG Macrotures in 1/60 scale.  Why oh why did Steve start a new "line" with only one vehicle and then have the gall to discontinue it due to poor sales?  Steve, buddy, c'mon.  It's one stinking vehicle. What did you expect?  At the Absolute Bone Jaring Minimun you should have made the rest of the Big Three: MSL tank and Heavy tank.  You are killing me here!  But then again, as King of the Proxies, I went to Kryomek USA and bought enough Heavy Tanks, Assault Guns, MSL tanks & APC's to make up for Steve's screw up. IIRC it came to about $750.00.  Kryomek says "Thanks Steve!"

 Proxy attack!  Here we have a fistful of other manufacturers.  Down in front are the Chieftain Mk5's which are GHQ 1/285 minis, I use them as archaic armor.  Ya gotta have Chieftains, its the sexiest tank ever!  The big lads are Battletech Dominators (or something like that). A much cooler design than the SJG Superheavy!  In back are 5 Stan Johansen Heavy tanks and 4 GHQ Sturmtigers.  Just bought a few to use as archaic assault guns.

Here's the whole pile in one big happy group.  Right now the count stands at Combine 57, Pan-euro 85, and assorted wierdness 29. Or maybe that's backwards? Oh well.  In closing I'd like to point out I've been playing Ogre for something like 25 years, having bought the 2nd ed from Metagaming for $2.95 way on back. I've brought that game with me all around the world.  Literally.  Right now I probably have 10 or 15 different versions; everything from 1st ed (GEV 4/4 movement WoooHoooo!), Delux, Diceland, GEV, GURPS, Miniatures, Macrotures, Shockwave, Battlefields, etc etc. I've used Squad Leader maps for more variety. Yeah, got Metagaming's Helltank and Helltank Destroyer too (both great games!). Even bought a Bauhaus Grizzly to proxy a 1/60 scale Ogre.  (It was the closest thing I could find.)  "Why stop now?" I figured and went ahead and ordered a Kickstarter edition too.  Whether I actually receive that one still remains to be seen.  I'm still more than a little aghast that Steve had the Audacity (yes, it should be capitalized) to charge $100 for the latest edition, but what the hell.  In for a penny in for a pound. Got the T-shirt on order too.  Soooooooooo,  Steve, you hear me?  Don't release 35 Munchkin supplements while you're "working hard" to get the Kickstarter Ogre game out! You've had the $923,000.00 cash since May 2012!  The clock is ticking! Help a brother out!

The Zombie Horde grows

Vampire Counts October has another success, I have finished up the last batch of Zombies for my Warhammer fantasy battle Vampire Counts Army. I already had a group of  sixty Zombies I built way back in 2004. I wanted to be able to field a magic number of three block of thirty zombies or with the changes in eighth edition two blocks of forty five, so I built another twenty four zombies and three sets of zombie standards and musicians. The last time I really fielded my Vampire Counts was a couple editions back. Zombies couldn't have command models but you were able to summon more of them when you cast Invocation of Nehek. So I fielded skeletons and black knights and never a unit of zombies. I always brought my box o' Zombies with me and used them when I summoned models with Nehek. 

 The original horde. built quickly and painted quicker. No close ups of these, they look best from arms length away. I believe my painting process was prime bleached bone, dry brush rotting flesh, add a couple detail colors per model and then a wash. Done. I originally flocked the bases with regular green flock but later went back and added a medium sized model railroad ballast with a brown wash. This was during my "need them painted by next Thursday" period.

The latest batch of Zombies. I glued the medium ballast to the zombie bases and them primed them black. I base coated them all with burnt umber. Then a rotting flesh dry brush. I went back with a selection of different colors to give them a hodgepodge of clothing. After I finished blocking in all the colors I gave them all a chestnut ink/ future wash. I then went back over dry brushing to take some of the gloss off of them.  Some still have a few glossy spots but they are fine for the table.

 A close up of the musician and the flesh drum face. The face was first painted tanned flesh, then an elf flesh dry brush and a final highlight of my dwindling supply of pallid flesh.

 One of my favorite Zombies, with bug eyes and bloody mouth, pure Zombie win.

Another favorite, bloody guts and a sickle knife.

The Zombie Horde fully assembled. I went over the bases of the older zombies with a wash and a drybrush to match the newer ones but the difference in priming some black and the others bleached bone can really be seen here. I actually entertained the idea of stripping the paint off of the old zombies and bringing them up to a better painting standard but it passed. The old Zombies will probably get me dinged on a painting score if take then to a tournament. If I decide ,for some reason, I must field my Vampire Counts in a tournament, I will just buy more zombies to paint.

ColKG