VBCW board

      I had a spare half hour or so in between doing projects and I thought I would use it to get my VBCW scenery out, to have a look at it all together and see if there is anything I really need to add to the look.
      I'm not sure this collection of buildings is even big enough to call a village but the BUF are here recruiting in their van.

      The bulk of the buildings are from the conflix range, a range I definitely plan to invest in more of in the future.

        

       The little, ruined stone building is my newest toy, a cheap model bought on ebay that, while it turned up completely broken, will be a valuable addition to my collection. A two story, open topped building will always be useful in any game, although I am particularly looking forward to using it in a mordheim game one day.

     I think I need to get my hands on some hedges and walls to really make it look like a village, but as a starting point I am really pleased with the stuff I have so far.

Thanks for reading

Something dark, this way comes.

     Another slow weekend in terms of painting achievements, but I am about halfway through a couple of big projects that need to be finished before the end of September so there should be some serious posts coming along soon.

     My one bit of painting I can show off is my BUF van. Much as I still haven't bought any actual BUF figures yet, they are on my to do list, I did pick this little thing up really cheaply at a railway show and it was fairly obvious how it should be painted. It will probably get a quick weathering in time, but at the moment I am pretty pleased with it.

Thanks for reading

Adepta Sororitas

           My sisters of battle army has been one of those projects that in my head was a stunning good idea, I love their fluff, I love the way they work, I even liked the models, but put into practise they are a horrible army to collect. They are stupidly expensive to buy, fairly mono pose once you get past your first squad and a half, and it is neigh on impossible to get some of the weapon options, then painting them turned out to be a chore rather than a pleasure. On the other hand, now they are done I am looking forward to getting a game in with them.

         So before I show the finished project I thought I would complete the run down of newly finished squads, first of which are some more sisters of battle. This is my second troop choice and my commander, meaning I now have a legal army.

     So with my minimum army (plus tanks) painted, all that was left of my planned project was a small squad of Celestians, and here they are. Painted in the same colour scheme as my basic troops but given a little extra bit of gold ornamentation  just to make them appear different on the battle field. While the sister superior has been given an abbess backpack to make her appear a lot more important than a normal superior as well.

Thanks for reading.

Bumbling on through

     This weekend was a blow out in terms of hobby progress. The same few models that were on my desk Friday after work, are still there, Monday morning before work, but I did get a little bit of painting done mid-week and I also did a little bit of tidying up of old models about the same time.

      The first 4 figures, below, are my zombie wedding scene from hassle free miniatures. These were yet another impulse buy earlier in the year just before I actually got married. Something about painting up both of us as zombies in the right sort of gear, just made me laugh, so it had to be done really, and yes, I did wear a bright yellow waistcoat . . . While these were painted up much earlier this year, I didn't get time to base them and as it had been bugging me that I hadn't, it was a job that crept back up my to-do list.

      The best man figure isn't from the metal hassle free set, but is a plastic zombie from a set that will be going up in dribs and drabs for the rest of the year.

         I'm going to keep an asterix on the zombie horde label until it actually becomes one. The 5 zombies I have posted up so far do not, under any circumstances, make a horde.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Gaming tables

         This post is going to look a lot like a couple of badly put together game reports, but that really isn't my aim. I've been getting into the habit, recently, of getting my camera out every game night at club. when there is a good looking game going on, to get a couple of photos either for the club blog, or for the club emails, just so anyone who wasn't there has a fair idea what was going on and what to expect for next time that game comes out. This got me thinking though, about just how many good looking tables I have been playing on recently and I thought I would write about them. I always enjoy looking at pictures of other people's tables so I thought overs might like to see the ones I have been playing on recently.

        First up was a western table from a couple of weeks ago. It was set up to play a multi player game of cowboy wars (which turned out to be a truly dire set of rules, although a fun game to play). The buildings are nearly all mdf structures from the 4ground range, but there are a few older resin ones mixed in. The buildings were bought by a club member who wanted to try out Dead Man's Hand set of rules, but as it is a card based game, and he doesn't like card based games, they are trying to find a new use for them.

     The next game is set in the early stages of the German advances through Belgium in WW2, using the bolt action set of rules. The buildings are a mix of resin, foam board and cardboard, along with pound shop dark grey foam as roads, but the over all effect of sitting at one end of the table trying to work out how best to take over Europe was really good fun. Yes I know my vbcw methodist church is sitting in both shots trying to pretend its not what it looks like, but it didn't matter to the overall effect.

Thanks for reading.

The sisters march

                                  

     A long bank holiday weekend means a lot of spare painting time, and this one has been no exception. My desk is covered in multiple, exciting new projects and the pictures below show the start of one of these.

     After a long period of completely ignoring 40k and everything to do with it I am now back in the mood and really excited about it, and this is the outcome of that excitement. A whole new army. These are the start of my Order of the Martyr's Blood, a faction in the imperial sisters of battle, the military arm of the church in humanity's future.

      My club already has a sisters player, who is my normal ally when we actually get around to playing, so I thought I would take influence from his colour scheme. I toyed with a direct copy, but decided a much better idea would be a colour reversal. So his red armour and white robes, became my white armour and red robes, which I have to say is really quite pleasing to look at. I like the idea that the sisters are supposed to be this weird mix of purity, faith and military vengeance. So the white armour becomes their idealist purity and faith, but the red under tones shows they aren't afraid to bring fire down on the enemies of their faith.

    So far I have painted up my first sisters troop squad and a couple of heavy support exorcist tank. This army is going to be much more about mid to long range attack, and will be woeful in close combat, although it will have a slight combat part build in just in case. The finished army will there-fore comprise of a couple of long range missile tanks, a couple of mid range shooting squads, and a more mobile shooting squad that has some ability in combat, although it won't be choosing to do that if it can be avoided.

     The exorcists are the forge-world kit rather than the games workshop one, for the simple fact that I prefer the basic military look of the forge-world version. I know 40k is all about the high gothic, over the top architecture, but I'm just not as big a fan of it as I could be, I like the slightly understated look of this one. The fact the other sisters player uses the games-workshop version should look really good on the battlefield, when balanced off against my pair of this version.

Don't worry if your not into 40k, this is just one of a few projects I have on the go. . .

Little pests

       I still haven't achieved any proper painting but with a spare few minutes snatched between jobs at home last night I did manage to get another few bits done. I'm sure this won't come as a surprise when I say it. but, these have been on my desk for a while. I had originally intended to mount each on a single base and end up with a massive swarm of really tiny dinosaurs but the base ended up being so much bigger than the actual models it just looked daft. Then they almost became basing detail on the big girl, and some might in the future, but I still liked the idea of them being really weak and basically ignore-able in game, unless you let them mob up, see Jurassic Park; the Lost World for details. 

      The figures themselves, are Compsognathus from the hlbs companies dinosaur range, like the velociraptors last month and another couple of dinosaurs still waiting to be painted. I like the fact this range focuses on the smaller dinosaurs, which then balances nicely with the easily bought bigger dinosaurs you can get everywhere else.

     I do love the size comparison between these little guys and the big girl, really proves my point about them being ignore-able. In the future I will probably order another pack of 10 at some point, use half to really bulk these guys up and use the rest for base details on a couple of bigger dinosaurs, but my desk is covered with new projects at the moment and I haven't had any proper painting time for a couple of weeks now so we will have to see what happens.