Ōuchi Clan Ashigaru

   After a break of a few months with other projects distracting me* I decided I needed to get back to work on my Ōnin War Samurai project** and get on with the opponents the Ōuchi clan. Starting as normal with the regular foot troops, which for feudal Japan is the Ashigaru.

*as per usual

**slightly grander title than a colour scheme I found online

   I found a single picture online that claimed to have the colours worn by Ōuchi clan Ashigaru and with no knowledge of my own, I decided to take it as gospel and get painting.

  I've decided I need to focus on getting a few key projects finished asap, so hopefully you won't see too much of me bouncing around for a bit.

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More Sons Of Horus Terminators

   I'm on a bit of a roll with this project* and while I'm getting things moving I thought it was worth getting the last 5 infantry done and off my list. These are the other main flavour of terminator in 30k (lets all ignore indomitus terminator armour) Tartaros armour, slightly less armoured than Cataphractii but far more mobile.

*painted a couple of weeks ago

   I wasn't as big a fan of this mark of armour, for me 30k is the bulky Cataphractii but this mark has its place and it does look good in my version of the Sons of Horus sea green. I can really see these looking good in Ultramarine Blue with my MKIV Ultramarine army.

I'm just waiting for my replacement landraider bits to arrive and then I can look at getting this list done.

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The Red Angel Calls

   I went into this year not planning to do many/any(?) new projects but after a conversation with my brothers about their gaming plans for the year, both have expressed a desire for a cheap year in terms of playing a couple of different combat patrols but not building massive armies*. So while I am still going to try and get a couple of bigger games in at some point this year**, it has allowed me to muck about with other combat patrols slightly more guilt free.

*working on the theory buying a new combat patrol is a set price they can budget into their plans, while armies tend to be unpriceable and suffer from unplanned project creep

**if my gaming venue ever reopens

   The World Eaters were one of those combat patrols I had my eye on but probably wasn't going to push the button with until two things happened, 1. GW announced that the chaos daemon codex wasn't going to be a stand alone thing and that we'd get mixed daemon/mortal God books for them. 2. My brothers wanted to stay with Combat Patrols. This meant that I was going to end up buying the Khorne book anyway as my Khornate daemons are my biggest daemon army, so I might as well get the most use out of the book, plus its a combat patrol I can use against my brothers. Also, the patrol being three core units with sensible upgrades meant I had a solid basis for an army no matter what happened in the new codex.

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Tiny Romans

   I started a test 2mm project with 3 units back in 2021 but didn't get any further than the 2 bases of infantry and a bit of scenery, then at Salute one year * I went nuts and bought enough to do two sizable armies for the Late Republican Romans and Gauls. My painting at the moment is still just flailing around and I'm doing whatever is on my mind, with the 2mm project being something that went round in my head one early morning sitting in the dark with an awake baby.

*I want to say 2023?

   I'm not sure why I stopped doing this project at the time, other than I guess it went down the priority list. I know the cavalry and Gallic warbands were intimidating me a bit but the legions are fairly easy to keep moving. I decided to do a legion and try the cavalry to prove to myself they were do-able, then added another legion as I got the first done quicker than expected.

   I have to say, that I enjoyed the cavalry more than I expected and have a real urge t buy more of them, only having the one as it was about the minimum I could get away with. Before that, I just need to finish a project and get it on the table.

A Gallic warband or two next, I think.

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Scenery Project 1 - Dibbler's Meat Pie Shop

   I've been looking online for some interesting buildings to supplement my collection, those models that just have a bit of character to draw the eye. I follow Fogou Models on Bluesky and this building came up as someone had shared it, which instantly made me realise I needed one for my Madina.

   Its made of an almost plaster of Paris feeling resin, so is a very different beast from the other plastic kits I've been playing with* and with it only taking an afternoon to paint, it was a lovely little project. The model is called the Bakehouse and I've added a roll shutter door** and junction box from the same company just to give it something, along with cardboard signs. 

*this will not play well if stored in the same box as a foam built adobe

**I meant to order their shop opening but didn't realise I'd ordered incorrectly until I made this post

   All of my other scenery for this project has been made with multiple periods in mind, so I'm trying not to put anything futuristic on that can't be removed for WW2 or Medieval games. This model I just decided would be sci-fi all the time and I think it just suits it.

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Vehicles For The Desert

   A few months ago we took the family on a long weekend to Cornwall to take full use of the last year where holidays can be taken in term time, this was supplemented with an extra night in Devon to break up the journey home. Looking at where we ended up staying it became obvious that a quick stop at the Tank Museum in Bovington was a real possibility.

   We went to the museum fully aware that a young family and museums normally means a rapid exit when someone gets too bored, so I set my hopes low and aimed to see a few key vehicles. However, we were pleasantly surprised, every area has something for kids to play with, be it a table with army figures, fake Lego to build your own tank or a giant snakes and ladders, all topped off with a massive soft play.

   This all brings me back to the project I started as the big early project for 2023, my African theatre British for WW2. I worked my way through the infantry in January that year but I was stumped on the exact colour for the vehicles and while I was working out my plan, other projects took over and this one was forgotten beyond it being the first option to play with my brother before we both drop the plan as neither of our armies were finished.

   Coming back from holiday, I was, unsurprisingly, massively motivated to get some tanks painted, so I went to work playing with sprays and paints in my collection before deciding on a Zhandri Dust spray as a prime then a really watered down Tallarn Sand just to get the colour a bit closer and I was quite pleased with the result on the test Humber MK2 (below).

Humber MK2 from Warlord Games

   I then decided to use the other vehicle that came in the Gentlemen's War starter box to test the blue camouflage, which took me a few days of looking at my paints and photos online before I was happy to try an idea. Then work and home life hit hard and it took me about 2 weeks to finish this model, but again, I'm pretty pleased on the end result.

Stuart "Honey" tank

   With those done, I then sat on the project again for a bit due to just a lack of opportunities to actually use these armies, but with the new Wayland Games venue hopefully opening in the next couple of months, it would be good to get this project usable and ready to go.

   With that in mind, here are the first Matilda and a light mortar team that I need for my first list. I need to pick up another sprue of 8th army infantry as I am short an officer team in the new edition, but otherwise I just need a table and time to get a game in.

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Sons of Horus Terminators

   Hobby wise I'm bouncing all over the place at the moment and I'm not all that apologetic about it. Between work and kids, my hobby time is all over the place so I'm sticking with the 'anything painted is something off my list' theory of getting stuff done and hoping to just keep chipping at projects.

   In that vein, I have a smaller sub project in my Horus Heresy Sons of Horus that I wanted to get finished and that is a terminator/landraider themed army. In the book Vengeful Spirit there is a scene in the battle for Molech where the Sons of Horus rush an army forward where the first wave is described as being entirely terminator armed and in landraiders, and this has very much stuck with me, with various lists written in my head, priced out and then scrapped.

   However, I've been slowly doing units for other projects and ended up in a position where I basically had everything I needed to try it out, so that's what I am doing*. This is the big block of axe wielding terminators to accompany my preator in his shiny Spartan transport. 

*although, as of last night I have found out my last landraider that I bought in 2020 is missing a sprue, so that's an email to customer services

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