Tuesday 30 August 2016

Minimum army for AOS

    In an attempt to get a game of Age of Sigmar in so that I can really get my head around whether I like the new rules or not, I have finally finished the second battleline unit and my first hero. Both were cheap ebay purchases as they were part of the two army starter set and were click fit rather than multi-part models, but none of that worried me at all. At this point, my minimum army has cost me less than £25, which to get enough GW models onto a board to play a game is basically unheard of.


     My second unit of Stormcast Liberators. Other than a different colour blood drop on the shoulder pad there isn't much to say about these guys.


     My first hero is a Stormcast Relictor. Basically, the Stormcast version of a chaplain but with slightly cooler fluff - these are the guys who effectively make the Stormcast Eternals, eternal, by catching their souls when they die before the Lord of Death can, then putting them into new bodies and sending them forward again.

    Now, the aim is to try and get a game in and then build on my forces if I enjoy it. Oh and find a regular opponent.

Thanks for reading

Friday 19 August 2016

Somali Pirates

    First thing, I want to mention that I didn't paint these figures, I am not going to claim credit for them but with a week of half finished projects, I've got nothing of my own painted so these guys get the limelight. 

    In a natural (?) progression from Sangin Skirmish in Afghanistan, we have decided to have a look at playing a game set in a different theatre that could affect our game and we picked a game based on how the Taliban get their supplies and materials. Somali pirates became the obvious go-to project.*

* Conversations about wargaming
should never be taken out of context.
eureka somali pirates sangin skirmish

eureka somali sangin skirmish africa

     The models are from Eureka Miniatures and the paint job is by Daemontail Miniatures. This was my first foray into professional painters and one that I doubt I will make too much of a habit of but I am really impressed with the results.*
     I've had these sitting on my desk since Salute and I just couldn't get myself to motivated to start putting paint onto them, so as there we only twelve it seemed like the perfect opportunity to send them to a mate who kept mentioning about his painting studio. It was also quite good fun finding images of the football shirts I wanted knowing full well someone else was going to have to attempt to do them.

* Painting your own figures is
what makes the army feel 
'yours' in my head.

deamontail miniatures essex fgure painter studio

Now to sort out the ship. . .

Thanks for reading

Friday 12 August 2016

A road I didn't think I would walk

     While I didn't get around to playing much Warhammer Fantasy - price point and my limited attention span meant that a whole army wasn't going to happen - I was amongst the hordes of gamers who were shocked when GW killed their world off and created a whole new setting. I was listening to the Heelan Hammer podcast as it unfolded and agreed with them that with the way the fluff was going and the 'End Times' setting that had been in place for so long meant something had to happen.*
    Age of Sigmar was still a shock and I won't lie and tell you that when I saw my first Stormcast figure I decided I needed an army of them there and then, because I really didn't like them. Really didn't. Now the internet rage has died down, however, speaking to the few gamers who have given the game it's fair chance (and seeing all the cool stuff at Warhammer world) it sounds like a really good game. Two separate people have described the game as GW taking the best bits of both Warhammer games and LotR (which I still maintain is the best GW ruleset ever) and mixing them into a stunning game. How could I not give that a try?
 * Be careful what you wish for
40k players
aos stormcast eternal liberators starter set

    I'm still not 100% on the fluff but this game has so many entry points that I don't think it matters. This is my first unit of Stormcast Eternals Liberators (to give them their full name). I have gone with the GW studio scheme of gold armour and blue, but I am using different transfers* on the shoulder pads mark them out as my figures.
* Blood Angel squad symbols in this case
stormcast eternal colour scheme
The figure that came 'free' on the front of the 'Get started with AOS' that GW produced. 


     I know this blog post isn't going to be for everyone but that's the joy of blogging, if a post comes up on your feed that you have no interest in you don't need to read it. Hopefully, I might have inspired someone else to have another look at AOS even if they have no intention of playing it. While I wait for my second troop and first HQ to appear from ebay so I can try and get a game in.

Thanks for reading

Tuesday 9 August 2016

AT rifle for the VBCW Albertines

     VBCW is one of those weird projects where I love the premise, I love the models, I will collect way too many figures for but I doubt I will ever actually play unless I can twist the arms of the people around me. 
     Knowing that, however, here I am with another unit for my much beloved Albertines, an AT rifle team from Footsore miniatures. I was looking at my force on an older blog post (VBCW Albertines) and something clicked in my head, I still need more in my motor pool but I also need a way of dealing with opposing vehicles as well that isn't just big guns on various cars or tanks and, in this period, an AT rifle felt like the answer. 

vbcw at rifle team footsore minatures

vbcw albertine weapon team


Thanks for reading

Monday 8 August 2016

Saga Iron Man - The Movie

    A completely unplanned post but one that made me laugh when I spotted it. I'm in the Wargames Illustrated magazine's Saga Iron Man day's movie, not once but twice.*

* I'm not built for tv work.

Thanks for watching

Friday 5 August 2016

Little slice of Normandy

    After a weekend in Lille and Yres at the end of May I was full of ideas for the pile of MDF buildings languishing in the corner of my man-cave. I had built them all nearly a full year ago, played a single game with them unpainted and just couldn't get the enthusiasm to know what to do with them. A year later, and armed with lots of photos of French buildings, I now had a plan.

     These are the first two I have finished; a Sarissa Precision shop and cafe. 

painted sarissa buildings normandy


sarissa bombed normandy shop

       One of the things I have noticed both online and with other players is most people just paint the inside of their bombed out buildings in the same coat as the outside just so there is no bare wood on the model. This is fine but I had other ideas.*
* Although it is probably
a little too perfect inside
Thanks for reading

Monday 1 August 2016

German tank crew

     When I start playing Bolt Action a bit more regularly we have planned to try a map based campaign and one of the rules we would like to try is allowing tank crews to gain experience. This then means that crews have to survive.
     Our house rules will allow a roll for X number of the crew to survive and try to get off the board, so I needed to pick up some crew. Step up the famous 50% off Black Tree Designs sale.

german tank crew black tree designs bolt action


     The annoying thing I have found out is Panzer III and 1V both had 5 man crews but with 2 packs  of men I am unlikely to have two full crews running around at any time.


 Thanks for reading