Gaming mats

     It's been another couple of weeks with very little hobby to put to my name, a mix of extra hours at work and spending time trying to bond a newly adopted rabbit to our current pair, but that doesn't mean I haven't got anything done.

     A couple of months back I backed a gaming mat kickstarter from a company called Ceri Designs. The guy behind it wanted to make great quality, versatile, but most importantly, affordable, cloth mats and as I have been on the verge of buying some mats for a while, I took the plunge, backing it for 2 of the 3x3 mats. First things first, this is the first kickstarter that I have backed that has delivered on time, that definitely deserves a mention, secondly, much as he has taken a bit of slack for the designs being fairly modular (you'll see that on my second mat) it's not something that I am overly worried about, the actual printing quality is really good and if his claims are anything to go by these things are wash proof and game proof, I'm not sure you can go too far wrong. These are definitely some of the better quality mats I have ever seen, so I am looking forward to seeing them in bigger sizes next.

     The first mat I picked was a modern urban one, I have a slowly growing collection of urban buildings that I am building and painting/spraying as and when I get enough time, my lead mountain now includes a secondary mdf peak. The mat itself is a simple crossroads, which is the basic layout I generally prefer, you can make sure both sides have a fair game, but can block off roads to get rid of lanes of fire if you want.

       The second mat I got was the basic flagstones mat that every gaming mat company has to have on their books. I picked the most basic one in the range, simply because I felt I could get more use out of a basic one used well than shoehorn a more specific mat into other uses. I can definitely see this being used for small games of VBCW, Frostgrave, Open Combat and maybe even Lion's/Dragon's Rampant.

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*Edited* - The website is now live; http://www.ceridesign.xyz/

Scuba diver zombie hunters

       First up, I'm not dead! Although I have been so busy at work that I feel like I might be and, sadly, this means I haven't achieved much with my paint brush recently.

      So back to this post's subject; my version of zombie hunters. I love the idea of a rag-tag band of survivors but I also wanted to do something a bit different and it was while I having a look at the Crooked Dice 7TV dice starter back near the start of November, that I spotted the pack of scuba divers.

      I have the vague idea of a scenario where an oil rig has gone quiet so a small team is sent in to see what is going on and get one hell of a surprise, although it needs more time spent being thought through.

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Lion Rampant Re-enforcements

     I haven't got a huge amount to show at the moment; we are in the process of completely re-doing the central heating * and having the house partially rewired at the same time, so my man-cave has been boxed up and packed away. There is always the chance I will get some bits of painting done but ultimately it's going to be a good 3 weeks before I start anything hugely solid.

     In the mean time; to go with the bombard I painted up a few weeks back, here is a unit of hand gunners and a 3rd unit of foot sergeants. I am trying to round this force out to a double army size of 48 points while still giving it a bit of choice in terms of troops which means maxing out the most useful troop types and picking up a few more oddities around the edges.

* so that we have some

 The foot sergeants are Perry miniatures. I love the fireforge plastic spearmen but I wanted something a little bit different for my third unit and these guys were perfect.

These guys are from Crusader miniatures and once I had played a game where my opponent had a unit, I knew I had to join in too. There is no way these will see regular gaming as their rules are just too harsh but I am really looking forward to using them.

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Zomtober 2015 - Week 4

 Zomtober zombie count: 72

     This is going to be tight on time, so I don't know if it will make the Sunday deadline, but here is my last week's worth of zombies for Zomtober. Just about finished this morning and then left waiting to be updated while I got on with my actual jobs for the day.

     The last 20 man(?) box of WW2 German zombies. I have a few stragglers left to paint to complete the project, but getting each box done at a go felt like the right way to get the horde up and running.

     The current horde in all of it's shambling glory. I'll see if I can get it properly finished in the next few weeks.

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Beyond dead man's hand

     What a weekend, two days spent in the man-cave with good music, a desk full of models, lots of coffee and a cheeky little game of Frostgrave. The last point first; I did take some photos but I got way too into the game to remember to take enough, but it is a game that I will definitely play more often, just working on a big enough group to play with.

      Next, what I was actually painting;

     This proof I have been watching too many Westerns. It started as a 4ground wagon, the horses came from Colonel Bill's, I think, while the driver was from Dixon Miniatures and then I got really carried away and put a Artizan Miniatures gatling gun in the back to give it a real kick.

     The horsemen are all from Dixon Miniatures, after it was noted that my collection had nothing in the way of horses or mounted cowboys, which is kind of what they are famous for. . .

     The civilians are also from Dixon Miniatures and will be added to the few I already have. I'm a little bit gutted about the fact I have two of the little girl, one was supposed to be a running boy.

    More gun hands, again mostly from Dixon Miniatures but there are a few Artizan Miniatures and Great Escape Games mixed in. I noticed my collection was very low on rifles and as they can be really integral to dead man's hand at times I figured it was time to sort that out. I am particularly pleased with he guy with one arm, although I can't help but think the guy at the front with two guns will be more useful.

     Also painted up at the same time but I didn't take separate pictures of are the un-mounted horses and the sleeping cowboy, although they are in the background of a lot of the shots.

Lastly, does this guy count towards my Zomtober numbers?

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Zomtober 2015 - Week 3

Zomtober zombie count: 51

      It's that time of the week again, submission day. As expected my will power to keep mass painting German WW2 Zombies has, ironically, died a death so instead I pulled out some more models from my lead pile and painted those to give me a break.

The zombie dogs are from Fenris Games and are a massive improvement on my zombie dogs from last year. The small white one reminds me of the dog from Toy Story.

These women are from the zombie vixens box, the box that just keeps giving. showing again how much I like batch painting colours.

Last up is a mix of figures from different places that I have picked up over the course of the last few months. The zombie, dwarf Michael Jackson and the zombie Japanese school girl are from Hasslefree Miniatures, the guy is another wargames factory plastic and the delightful woman in pink is from Reaper Miniatures.

     Next weekend; the last of my German Zombies (hopefully), but I have been painting up other things as well, so I am aiming for a mid-week post as well.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Zomtober 2015 - Week 2

Zomtober zombie count:40

      This weekend was a bit more of a frantic attempt to keep the momentum up than last week was, as I had less time and slightly less motivation, but here it is; my week two of Zomtober.

     Another 20 WW2 German zombies. Just one more box and a few bits and pieces to go and I am done with this project. The biggest joy of this year's project compared to last year's, is that uniform is much easier to bulk paint than normal clothing that you are trying to make appear random.

    It's time to put my poor knackered paint brushes down for a little bit to give them a break from painting hordes of German zombies. Next week is probably going to be more modern zombies for the horde started last year and then the last week will be back to this again to finish it off.

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Foray into Frostgrave

      Whenever I start a new project (and yes, I do this a lot) I always start the first paragraph with who it is a blame for being a bad influence this time. This time is no exception, I blame the guys on the meeples and miniatures podcast for making me weak. Now that is out of the way we can get on with this post.
     
      This project was very much a raid on my lead mountain and work out what I can turn into a fully functioning warband and the depth of my pile of shame meant that I'm actually pretty pleased with what I got together. If I have worked out the points correctly, I think I have my 500 point force plus a spare tracker, who was on my desk when I started with project, which means enough for a game . . .

 Illusionist and his apprentice. 

I genuinely have no idea if these guys are any good in game, but as they were the wizards I already had on my desk they were the first ones to lead my band of men.

 Templar and Infantry. 

This is my biggest hitter and his 'apprentice'. The templar is from Hassel-Free Miniatures.

 Tracker and Warhound. 

The tracker is the only model not in my initial band.

 Two Thugs.

Cheap muscle and objective grabbers.

Two Archers.

No-one likes being turned into a pin-cushion without a reply.

      This is probably the cheapest project I have jumped into, in terms of buying specifically. I was given a box of the plastic frostgrave figures as a birthday present a few months back, the tracker was for a lion's rampant idea that didn't make sense about 3 hours after I ordered him, while the wizards were bought to expand my collection of generic fantasy heroes, all I had to buy was the rulebook and that was stupidly cheap compared to most new rulesets.
      The more I look at these pictures the more I am starting to think the colours are too bright, so they might get an ink wash in the future, but for now I need a game. And an opponent. . .

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Zomtober 2015 - Week 1

Zomtober zombie count:20

      Ok, so this isn't going to be the most exciting first post for Zomtober ever, but here we go. This year I have gone with a theme - a what if during WW2.

     It's 1943, the U.S. has just committed itself to supply troops for the war effort, plans are being drawn up for a landing in Europe for the following year, but the continent has just gone eerily quiet . . .

        This is the first 20 German zombies for what I want to be a decent horde to play an apocalypse Europe game. Plus side these guys have in terms of getting painted are that they are in uniform, so conveyer belt painting is easier. Just got to keep the momentum up now.

      I've got some zombies left over from last year, plus a few odd models I have picked up over the course of this year, so at least one of this year's post will be a continuation of last year, just to give me a break from mass painting these guys.

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