September Progress

I've been doing quite a bit of work since I last entered on the blog. A lot of time has been spent on the Towton Project and below is a picture of my first few stands.

I've also been working on the 6mm Seniira army for the on going Warrior Heroes Talomir campaign. This is about half completed so far and should be finished in the next couple of weeks. On the 28mm scale I've got some Artizan Cultists which now just need basing and varnishing and hundreds of Wargods Mummies which also need painting.

August Progress

This month I've been working on my next Talomir Tales army. Ruarigh and I have been trying to add a new army each every game year. My new army is the Tropilium Army based on an early Imperial Roman army. I've added the link to our Talomir Tales blog on the side panel.

On the right are the auxiliary infantry units, next to them are the light cavalry.

This is the heavy boys with the Auxiliary archers on the right, the Legionnaires in the centre and the heavy cavalry on the left.

Finally the Scorpion units and slingers. All the figures are Baccus 6mm, mainly from their Early Imperial Roman range.

These are the painted Nekharu. I still have about another dozen to finish and buildings to make before the final part of our Searchers campaign can be played. This should hopefully occur before Christmas.

The next big project is however going to take a lot of my painting time. Together with a bunch of other fools I have joined in a recreation of the Battle of Towton. I've added a link to the blog on the sidebar. The hope is to do this in as near to 1 figure to 1 participant as possible. It is being done in 6mm, again with Baccus figures, even so the battle had around 70,000 people involved , so it will be large undertaking. We are hoping to take the Battle around several shows in 2011, the 550th anniversary of the battle. We will also be running several of the preceding battles during 2010.

Nearing the end of July

Well not alot of progress on the Nekharu, I have 12 ready for basing, so about a third nearly finished. Looks like I shall be wearing the dunces hat again.

I have however not been idle on the modelling front. Occasionally I get around to making dioramas for friend's birthdays. So this is what I have spend most of this month doing. The lighting hasn't shown very well in the pictures.

So it's back to the Nekharu now and seen as we are not setting targets for August, holidays and such, I should be able to get them finished before the end of then.

Searchers of the Lost Uraei Episode 2 - That Sinking Feeling

Searchers of the Lost Uraei
Episode 2 – That Sinking Feeling

Following the route given to you, you head further South along the Nile and into Nubia. As you enter a lush valley one of your scouts returns dragging a cowering native. After a brief questioning you discover that the person you need to speak to is hiding in the nearby swamp. The swamp is only accessible to a small group, so you head into the swamp with just your closest allies (i.e. characters).

The native with the information is hidden in the swamp beneath a large tree, but is protected by a magical barrier. To allow friends to pass through the barrier there are 3 parts of a key hidden in the swamp. To pass through you must have at least one piece and pass an arcane save, having two pieces gives a +2 for the test and 3 pieces allows you through automatically. There are also some traps and a couple of crabs in the swamp.

Crab Stats

Mv 4 Wnd 2

#Att 2 Att 6

Def 4 Mis 0

Arc 8 Dis 8

AC 8 DM 2

Special

On a roll of 10 the opponent is caught by a claw and will suffer two wounds, subject to armour save, only one armour save. To free themselves they must make a successful attack. Once it appears the crab is given a command counter by each player and whoever actviates it first uses their counter, the other is then removed. While in close combat the crab can only be issued ‘Hold’ counters.

Movement is normal on the islands and bridges. If you wish to move through the swamp, it is at half move and each turn a movement save must be made. Those in no or light armour make the test as normal, those in medium armour at -2 and those in heavy at -4. The first failure means you are stuck in the swamp, every consecutive failure afterwards costs one wound as you slowly drown. Even normally amphibious creatures such as Sebeki are sucked into the swamp, they do get +1 to their save.

If your opponent is within 1” of the swamp a successful attack can be used to throw the opponent in the swamp, no armour save is given. Once a character is thrown into the swamp they are moved 1” away from their opponent and combat is broken. You cannot attempt to get out the swamp and fight, so each round in the swamp you need to make a movement save to keep your head above water, but do not move. A character is the swamp fights at -2 to Att & Def.

Tokens

1. Magical piece 2. Magical piece
3. Magical piece 4. Nothing
5. Nothing 6. Nothing
7. Slip into Swamp, movement save required to avoid.
8. Slip into Swamp, movement save required to avoid.
9. Crab 10. Crab

Winner

The winner is the first to get a character into the magical area.

The initial set up of the game with Ruarigh's Basti on the left and my Heru on the right. The two crabs floating around in the centre.
Both Master and Mistress of Words cast 'Earth's Farewell' and fly to tokens, both pick slip into the swamp, fail their movement saves and fall into the swamp.

Mazahs managed to clamber out of the swamp, while Meritbastet seemed unable to get out of the swamp that easily. The Basti however quickly found two of the magical pieces, to the Heru's none. The Basti soon find a crab which blocks their path and they have to fight it. The Heru also find a crab and it took a long battle before Fang the Anubi eventually killed it only to be killed by an arrow the next turn.

After killing the crab Emuishere and her followers raced on to the goal. While the Heru and Anubi seemed unable to kill their crab. Oussaprittay raced round on his shining chariot to cut off the magical grove.

The Mazahs, the Heru Master of Words flew in to attack Meritbastet, the Basti Mistress of Words, using 'Earth's Farewell, but was defeated leaving it up to the Heru champion to kill her. Here is were the Basti missile ability came into play with several javelins finding their targets amongst the Heru warband. Oussaprittay pushed the Blade Dancer out of the way and was killed by Emuishere in Provocation, having taken too many wounds earlier in the game. The rest of the warband was quickly despatched. Emuishere couldn't however save her Blade Dancer who disappeared into the swamp just as she reached her.

This left Emuishere to collect the information on the location of the Nekharu warband with the last of the Uraei. Excellent game and close up to the finish. So Emuishere goes into the fianl episode of Searchers... at Ka 3.

Wargods is a very good set of rules and well worth playing. The figures are well sculpted, although we could wish for more of certain races to be produced.

Next up is Tusk and a game of Pirates.

July's Project

This month is again a Wargods month, we both seem to have a lot of these figures that still need painting. These are the Nekharu, the evil henchmen of the Wargods of Aegyptus Universe. I have 37 to paint ready for August when I will be using them in the third part of the 'Searchers of the Lost Uraei' campaign, the second part of this will hopefully be played this week and pictures and a battle report will appear on the blog.

Albion Defence Force 6mm Finished

The Albion system was founded by explorers from the British Commonwealth. Over the years the history of the original countries has become intertwined with their myths and legends. To this ends King Arthur is now seen as the first King of Albion, a kingdom which covered England, Scotland, Wales, the West Indies, large sections of the Indian subcontinent and Nepal.
The system is ruled by Monarch, currently King Gawain XXI, who is selected by the mysterious ‘sword pulling contest’. They are advised by an elected group called the ‘Round Table’.
On the whole Albion is a peace loving system, although martial skills are highly prized. They have a small, but well equipped and trained standing army. All other citizens are part of the Albion Defence Militia and have to train for at least 1 week every year.

The Air support is provided by Urien Mark IV troop carriers and Merlin Mark V Ground Attack Craft.
The Infantry are shown standing next to the Guinevere APCs. In front are the Tristan scout cars.

The Mechanised Armour Brigade featuring the Lancelot Mark IX MBT, the Camelot Mark VII MBT, the Percival Mark II Tank and the Uthur Mark XII Light tank.

The Power Armoured Unit of Infantry, commonly known as ‘The Pendragons’ with their Gringolet APCs Mark XII & XIV. In front of these are the Ghurkha unit with the Everest Mark V APCs.

Tusk Figures Finished

Well I've got the Tusk figures and dinosaurs finished, which means we'll finally be able to have a game of it next month. So I shall write a review of the game after we have played. Really glad to have finally finished these as they seem to have been sitting half painted for a long time.

June Builds

Only just started June and already I've managed to find time to get 3 15mm Sci-Fi buildings finished. These should go well in our ongoing games.

The round fortifications are made from the ends of rolls of drawing paper.

The Dome building was a piece of scrap plastic I picked up.

These are the partly finished islands for the next of the campaign games for Wargods.

This is what the finished islands should look like. Then it's just a case of making the bridges to go between them.

June Update

As you can see I have managed to finish my May project and almost on time, a minor miracle. Now I've just a couple of bits of scenery to finish and we can carry on the Search Trilogy using the Wargods of Aegyptus rules.

For June I'm trying to get my 6mm Sci-Fi miniatures based for games of Dirtside II and Future War Commander.

Also I'm going to get the Tusk figures, I bought a while back finally painted and gamed with.

May Progress

This is what is still left on my painting board, I had hoped to have the Heru characters and Archer (Tum te tum de tum...) unit painted this month. Well it's nearing the end of the month and I still haven't finished them yet, dunce's hat on the way.

However since the two games of 15mm Sci Fi, Stargrunt II and Imperial Commander, I've been on a bit of a kick to get the rest of my 15mm figures painted. Okay so I bought a few more, thanks to Ground Zero Games for their quick delivery, the morning after ordering. So I now have another 24 Albion Defence Force figures painted and another 3 vehicles painted. I also painted up 6 of the GZG Xenomorph aliens and 1 of the Alien Mercenaries.

For reviews/reports of the games see Ruarigh's blog, http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.com/

This shows the 2 new hover APCs and also two trucks, which are from the Indiana Jones toys, not bad for £1.99.

Hopefully I should manage to get the Heru finished before the end of the month. Oh for a quiet life and time to paint.

Late Again. April Finally Finished

Well it's ten days into May and I've just finished April's Project. This leaves me wearing the Dunce's Hat yet again. I now have my 15mm figures finished.

These several units of the Albion Defense Force. On the left we have the Red Platoon. They are made up of 4 Rifle squads, of 1 NCO, 4 riflemen and an SAW, and 1 command squad, of 1 Lieutenant, 1 Sergeant, 1 radio operator, 1 medic and 2 riflemen. In the centre we have 2 snipers, 2 Power Armour Squads and 2 special forces squads. On the right we have the Blue Platoon which is as the red squad, but currently only has 3 rifle squads. Behind are 2 hover APCs, a command APC, a heavy hover Tank and a light scout Tank.

With these hopefully I shall be able to give Ruarigh a battle or three over the month. We shall start this week, with a try out of the Stargrunt II rules, from Ground Zero Games. Over the next few weeks we also hope to try Beamstrike, Imperial Commander and Laserburn.

For this month I shall be catching up on painting Wargods of Aegyptus figures and also scenery to finish an ongoing game from last year.

April's Project

For April I will be working on 15mm Sci-Fi figures. In May, Ruarigh and I, will then be trying a selection of rulesets with these figures. At the moment we are looking at Stargrunt, Laserburn and Beamstrike, although we have between us several more set of rules, but they will have to wait.

Figures to paint

57 Infantry
3 Hover APCs
2 Hover Tanks (Large and small)
1 Grav Tank
1 Half Track

I currently have 13 painted infantry.

All the figures and most of the vehicles are from Ground Zero Games. The half track I have no idea who made, it was picked up second hand at a show.

I also have quite a few other 15mm Sci-Fi figures which I may try to get painted as well, in particular the new figures from GZG, Alien Mercenaries and Free Traders.

Finally finished March's Project

The Finished Brethren Army

Okay so I ended up wearing the dunce's cap this month, as it took me slightly over a month to finish painting the Brethren. My only excuse is that I had to get some more figures from Irregular Miniatures at Triples to finish the army. Hopefully next week we shall be testing their mettle against the Goblins, using the Warrior Heroes rules.

Okay I'll wear the Dunce's Cap, but why do I have to wear a dress as well.

April is coming

Well April is nearly over and I haven't finished my month's project yet, of 6mm Teutonic Knights. Hopefully I shall get them finished this week, as I have a couple of days away with work and so will be packing my travelling paint kit.

I did however manage to get some photos taken. Below is the painted 15mm British Colonial Troops from February, complete with my latest purchases. I went into the local model/railway shop and they had alot of second hand buildings, several of which I thought would suit a 15mm VSF game. Altogether they came to just over a tenner.

This weekend I can't see me being too frugal as I shall be attending Triples on the Saturday, with a shopping list of things to buy. As next month we are painting 15mm Sci-Fi, I feel I shall have to visit Ground Zero Games and buy some of their new figures, the NAC and Alien Mercenaries. I also have a few more 6mm figures I need from Irregular to complete my Brethren Army.

As I said next month is 15mm Sci-Fi, so come May we will be trying a variety of rules. On the list at the moment are Stargrunt II, Beamstrike and Laserburn/Imperial Commander, I'm sure more will be added as the month progresses.

March Already

Well I managed to finish the British Colonial troops in February, so 2 VPs to me. I did however buy some more British Colonials from Black Hat Miniatures. Hopefully I shall get a photo of the finished soldiers on the blog sometime this week. We shall also be playing the first scenario from the Space 1889: Soldier's Companion this week, so the British Colonial will have their first run out.

We finally managed to have our game of Warrior Heroes: Armies and Adventures. A good couple of games, with both being close run battles, which could have easily gone either way. For a full review of the games and photos see Ruairgh's blog, The Ooh Shiny Complex.

This month we move down a scale again and I will be painting a 6mm Teutonic army, so that's more black, white and silver paint. We then plan to use these to play the old Warrior Heroes mass combat rules.

Cheers

Steve

February's Project

Okay I know we are nearly at the end of February. This month I shall mainly be painting 15mm British Colonial, for a game of Space 1889: Soldier's Companion. I have 49 soldiers and officers; 2 maxim guns on tripods; 1 gatling gun; 6 gun crew; and 19 marines.

I've made a reasonable start so far and am hopefully of getting the soldiers and gun crews finished before the end of the month, these are the main objective.

The End of Month One

Well January has come to an end and I just managed to finish my final figures on Saturday. My four mounted Brethren are painted , based and varnished. So 2VPs to me.

February's project is the 15mm Colonial British for our game of Space 1889: Soldiers Companion. Ruarigh is providing the opposition in the form of the martians. Hopefully I should have apicture of those for tomorrow. I should make a good start on these, as I am working away for two nights and will be packing my painting kit.

Unfortunately I also have to drive past Caliver Books, so there may be some expenditure this week. That's if it is safe to travel with the snow and more forecast.

Halfway First Month

It's the halfway point of January, so time to reflect on the progress made. Not too bad really I've had a few of evenings when I've been able to sit down, put on a classic radio series, 1930s Flash Gordon this week, and paint to my hearts content, or at least until the rest of the household return.

I also had one night working away, which means I can pack my painting gear into the car and sit in the hotel painting. Unfortunately works away also meant I had to pass nearby, 50 mile round trip, to Essex Miniatures. As I was in the area it would have been rude to not call in and spend some Christmas money there. This means I now have another 7 foot and 3 mounted figures to paint, but 5 of my original figures are now ready for varnish and 8 more aren't far behind.

Ruarigh and I have only managed a few of games since Christmas, due to work and family commitments. We played Laserburn, were I got my backside handed to me after a good start; Wings of War: Dawn of War were I shot down both of his aircraft; two games of Urban War were we share the spoils; and Koening Kreig were we finished part way through a game with me in a strong position, but Ruarigh fighting back.

So just 15 days to go and hopefully I'm well on course to finish the original figures and hopefully the additional figures.

Cheers

Steve