Sunday 1 April 2018

Necromunda Goliath Gangers

Finally finished my first gang for Underhive...the Goliath Gang. Well not totally finished. Need to do the base surrounds, probably a light grey colour to blend with the gangs colour scheme.

Escher and Orlock gangs to do next.








Monday 26 March 2018

House Goliath

Just a few more Piccies of some of the Goliath Gangers








Underhive Goliath Gang

Hi guys,

Been quiet on here recently, but I have been busy unboxing and assembling and carefully painting my first gang for Underhive.

Now, I had Underhive for Christmas, mainly because my immediate family and friends idea of Wargaming is limited to Games Workshop....bless 'em. Not complaining though. What you actually get in the box is well worth the money and the sculp quality is excellent, so even if the rules "dont pan out", the figures, terrain and templates etc would be useful for another scifi type setting.

I have assembled both gangs (Goliath and Eschers) and decided to do Goliaths first. I have painted them based upon the box images for colour scheme etc and I dont think they have turned out bad at all.




The first five front shot




....rear shot




second five front shot




...and rear shot. Just have to do the bases now. They will probably be a suitable grimey industrial look with some minimal alien vegetation attached. I will provide the finished shots next weeks with some progress shots of the House Escher Gang.

Sunday 18 February 2018

15mm Lizardmen Army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

Having ordered a shed load of figures from Magister in 15mm, it was time to compile a force for Sword and Spear Fantasy.

Quite a few people at the club are assembling forces for Sword and Spear Fantasy, so that supplied some motivation for this project, which is always a good thing.

With Sword and Spear, your force is element based along the same lines as DBA. The rules allow for small games ( 1 element represents a unit ) or larger games where 4 elements represent a unit.
Elements are 40mm wide and typically 20mm deep although Cavalry and Chariots (big stuff) can have 30 or 40mm deep bases. This is for 15mm figures, by the way.

You can depict your army as you wish, as long as both sides have the same frontage. We could for example, have a unit as 2 elements wide, but we have gone for a unit being 2 wide by 2 deep which gives a more pleasing appearance. Large units will be represented as 2 wide by 3 deep.

Anyway, after the rather heavy box of metal arrived...did i really buy that much?....I started to "organise" which units I would have...lots of each by the looks of it.

For Heavy Infantry, I will have 4 figures per base some of which may be Command / Standard Bearers....for Medium Infantry there will be 3 per base and Skirmishers, 2 per base.
Cavalry will be 2 per base for Heavy and Light purely because of the physical size of the figures.

I am afraid that although you only need between 8 - 12 units, I have bought enough stuff to probably have about twice that amount. Not as daft as it sounds really, because I have covered every eventuality for army composition.....what I mean is, that I have Chariots, Onagers, Light and Heavy Cavalry, Medium and Heavy Foot, Skirmishers, Wizards and Heroes etc etc

The figures from Magister are absolutely great with so much detail. I have decide that because I am having 4 figures per base max, I would paint these whilst they were attached to lollipop sticks, not something I have tried before.

I then manually undercoated with black as I was only doing a small number at a time. I knew that if I had prepped and sprayed about 100 figures, that would actually seem a very daunting painting task, so I would only have on the table enough figures to do a unit....between 12 and 16...thereby making the task appear smaller and easier.

I decided that my Lizard Army would be quite colourful and why not...the good thing about fantasy armies....I will have units in differing shades of Green mainly with some Blue ones, Orange ones and maybe Yellow....Wizards and Heroes will need to stand out also...Purple robes maybe.

Heavy Cavalry
Heavy Cavalry




Crossbows
Crossbows


Tridents
Tridents

Heavy Infantry
Heavy Infantry

Heavy Infantry
Medium Infantry in progress


Medium Infantry
Medium Infantry




Monster / Large Beast
Light Cavalry






Wizard
Wizard
Heavy Inf again
Chariot

 After the black undercoat, the various body colours were applied using dry-brushing techniques. After that a coat of appropriate ink was applied and when that was dry....about an hour...I applied a suitable colour Glaze (from GW)...this does actually might quite a difference probably not visible from the pics, but trust me its worth using.

Then the armour was done using a mix of silver and bronze and then any ancillary cloth, typically a loincloth of sorts.

Now some units are near completion, I will continue with some command figures for the ranks, more of which next time


Saturday 6 January 2018

Games Workshop (Citadel) Painting App

A few weeks ago, I downloaded the Citadel Paint App....thought it might be slightly useful...and it is free.

This was for iPad.

Anyhow, I set aside an hour to browse through its various functions.

I am actually well impressed. The main menu has 4 options


  1. GET STARTED this shows you a list of various techniques and paint types available and also different brush types to use for said techniques
  2. PAINT BY COLOUR this option provides a list of 16 main colours...red, orange, green,blue, brown,grey,gold,bone,pink,yellow,turquoise,purple,black,white,silver and flesh. By selecting a colour (say, Red), you are then shown some shade variations. So for Red you get Scarlet, Dark Red, Bright Red,Red, Blood Angels Armour, Farsight Enclave Armour, Behemoth Flesh and Flesh Tearers Armour. By selecting one of these you are given a "recipe" of which colours are required to achieve the result...Basecoat, Shade, Edge Highlights. At the top are the options to select a Layering or Drybrush technique...this will give you differing results. On the right hand side of each Paint name is a Pot with a Tick icon and a Pot with a Star icon. If the Pot is a black colour, then you have it in your inventory ( more later ) and if the Star is black then it is on your wishlist / shopping list....which you can print out ( more again later ). At the bottom is a picture showing a Marine backpack shown in the colour / technique you have selected.
  3. PAINT BY MINIATURE this option shows you a library of GW painted miniatures....ok...ok...so its all GW stuff, but just pick out the "theme" you are looking for, never mind the actual shape and size and type of miniature. There are over 80 pictures to choose from, so you should find something suitable for your Viking or Gangster figure. When you select a figure, you go down a level to a larger picture with arrowed paint descriptions of areas....then by selecting a colour, you are presented with the same colour recipe as mentioned above.
  4. PAINT BASES this option gives you a range of 15 different basing style to select. Similar to the figures above but just bases.
Ok...got all that?

It took me a bit of navigating, but I eventually stumbled across the Inventory / Stock Control listing.
Well useful...took me about 30 minutes to select from the Citadel Paint range, all the paints that I had including shades, technical, washes and glazes. You may need to print off an Old to New paint name list from, say, Tabletopgamers website.

Having done that, I decided upon a few schemes for different projects to give it a go. When i reached the paint required list, it showed me what I had and what i didn't have, so I selected the ones I didn't have. When I got back to the Inventory screen again, you also have a wishlist...which you can print out for shopping purposes.

Thats it really. It is obviously totally GW biased, but just look beyond that and use it for painting schemes that you have in mind.......AND ITS TOTALLY FREE.....

I must admit, over the past few months, I could be blamed for being a bit of a GW fanboy

All Quiet On Every Front

Well....lately, over the past five months actually, I haven't been "feeling" the wargaming buzz. i have been to our club only a few times over the past two months and then just spectated.

I have still got about 6 ongoing projects at the moment....in the man-cave.....probably about 30 really, having checked out the contents of piles of Really Useful Boxes in the attic.

I think I am an obvious example of "Dilution Theory" as purported by Mr. Dave Luff of Meeples and Miniatures podcast fame. Basically, you only have so many hours of gaming per month / year and if you divide that by increasingly more projects, then you achieve next to nothing....Hmmm.

I have a fondness for HP Lovecraft....so I have bought the Arkham Horror board game and also the Arkham Horror Card game. Not tried them out yet as they are very recent purchases, so maybe in the next year or two.

For Christmas I was most surprised (really?) to get the Necromunda Underhive box from Games Workshop.....well, they didn't actually send me a Christmas present, my partner bought it from their store is what I mean.

Does actually look pretty awesome. It was an old game that they binned years ago, but I have no history of the original, but the components look ace. Say what you like about GW, their figures are superb. I do like the direction that GW are going in these days. Maybe we will see Epic rise from the Ashes.

What I need to do is get my enthusiasm back. This, as you probably know, can come in many forms.

1) What other people are playing.

2) Articles in magazines.

3) Listening to Podcasts, reviews etc online.

4) Film releases

5) TV series.

6) Books in general and probably many more sources.

Lately, at our club, the "Flavour of the Month" seems to be Sword & Spear Fantasy in 15mm, so I am actually working on a Lizardman army...figures from Magister Militum. They are looking quite good and maybe I will post some Pictures later today.

I used to religiously buy 2 or 3 wargames magazines per month, but now I dont. Not sure why. probably because I get any info i need from companies I am interested in mailing me weekly, or browsing the the TMP website and forums.

Podcasts are a great way to help during the painting slog. During the few painting sessions over the past few months, I have been listening to the Meeples and Miniatures podcasts. Sometimes, it does make you feel like reaching for your wallet though.

Not many films or books that have inspired me recently.

TV....recently saw a trailer for a new forthcoming Drama series called Brittania, about the Romans in Britain...for the second time I believe.
Now I know that I will be watching this...and I also reckon that during the watching of said series, there will be a temptation to resurrect my Roman and Ancient Britons projects...Enthusiasm maybe.