Hello friends! I hope that this well overdue post finds you all healthy, well and in good spirits. I’m sure you are all feeling the same as I, in that you can’t wait to leave 2020 in the rearview mirror, it’s been quite a ride. Lets hope that that twinkle of light at the end of this tunnel is starting to get a little brighter!
Continue reading “Planet 28, Painting and other things.”
“It does not matter how the galaxy burns, only that it does”.
“Warmaster – that is what it means, my brother. The strength to do what must be done.”
Welcome back, friends! This post sees the beginning of a long(ish)-term project between me and my good friend Matt. After exchanging several text messages through WhatsApp a couple of weeks ago, we decided upon a painting thing we could do together, and so The Horus Project was born.
Continue reading “The Horus Project – An International Hobby Quest”
Welcome all, on this rainy, dark, and somewhat humid July afternoon. After my last session of D&D, I felt compelled to paint up one of my many Reaper miniatures. Now, I’m a little on the fence with the Reaper stuff. Some of the larger models look great, and the price point vs their metal counterparts sure makes it an attractive prospect to be able to pick up some great models without breaking the bank. I feel that some of the smaller miniatures suffer (a little bit) with the translation from the metal to the plastic, but again, It can be overlooked as you’re generally only going to be buying singles for characters or for beasties to populate your dungeon with.
Continue reading “Reaper Bones Naga, and my first game of Bushido”
Greetings all! it’s been a little while, but i’m back to talk about a game that I recently tried out at my FLGS called Arena Rex, by Red Republic Games. For those of you out there who are unfamiliar with the game, it’s essentially a 35mm figure system that is based on gladiatorial combat in an arena reminiscent of those you would see in ancient times. The difference with this game is, that while you have predominantly ‘human’ players (characters? victims?) you can also employ beasts into your ‘cohort’ or even gorgons or titans. The prospect of being able to ride a giant scorpion into the arena, or to have a colossal half snake/half human creature fighting for me was too much to resist!
The system is relatively easy to pick up. Games are typically played with 3-5 models each side. The opposing cohorts start off at either side of the arena, and the ultimate goal is to obviously emerge victorious by slaughtering the other side. Throw in hazards like pit traps (instadeath!), obstacles that can impede your movement or indeed beasts like lions that will bite off a chunk, and you have quite a quick paced game that is a lot of fun.
Character stats are all listed on cards that come with each miniature, as well as wound points and an interesting ‘damage tree’ system which can make for some unique, game changing moments when your’e successfully putting the hurt on your opponent. You also start off with a small amount of ‘favor’ – which is generated by the roaring crowds, slaughtering an enemy, trigger events that are listed on the stat cards and so on. These extra dice can be used to buff attack or defense rolls, but you have to use them wisely.
One thing I really liked about the game was the fact you had to think a turn or two ahead. It isn’t just a case of running forward swinging a sword, oh no. Each character gets a ‘free’ move, then anything after that causes them to either be ‘fatigued’ or ‘exhausted’, which can be fatal if you suddenly realize that you have a fatigued model in the open with no support, and a ‘fresh’ opponent within striking distance. You really have to be a little conservative, and a lot creative, with your positioning and timing until your tired models recover.
I only played one game against my buddy Joe, under the watchful eye of Todd who runs/owns Grognard Games in Roselle, IL. It was a lot of fun learning the rules and making mistakes, and seeing how the system works. Check out the video below to get a flavor of the game:
All that said, it was the miniatures that initially caught my eye and had me inquiring about the game. They are simply stunning figures. Cast in resin and exquisitely detailed, I knew I had to get involved. There are several different cohorts to choose from, though you can mix and match between them (although you do get bonuses for having exclusive cohorts). I chose Morituri, as I was really digging the Egyptian flavor they have going on. I have painted up my first character, Tiet-Khebi:
I’m going to go back in and repaint her weapons, because they look way too bland. She was a lot of fun to paint, and I love the dynamic posing that a lot of the miniatures for this game have.
The rules are available to download for free from the website HERE – but I would also encourage you to buy a copy of the rules too. Seriously, they are a meager $7.50! Also, do yourself a favor and go and look at the range of miniatures, like the Medusa…
You will not be sorry!
This game has been around for a couple of years, but I’m really glad that I found it. The low model count and quick learn rules are a win-win for someone like myself who doesn’t have hours and hours to play games. Couple that with beautiful miniatures and you’ve got yourself a winner!
Thanks for reading!
Ye gods! It’s already the end of February? what the heck? I guess when you hibernate for the winter (read: become and antisocial git that doesn’t want to go out anywhere) you don’t notice the time whizzing by.
That’s not to say I haven’t actually being doing stuff here and there. I’ve been dragging my ass up to my FLGS most Thursdays for some Infinity. I’m still crap, but I’m getting way more comfortable with the rules etc. The last couple weeks I’ve been running a ‘vanilla’ PanOceania list, which has netted me one devastating loss (against Yu Jing) and one win against Nomads (yay for missile launchers and suppressive fire!). I’ll be using this list this weekend for a league that Grognard Games will be putting on, here are the deets:
It’s 4 points over the 300 point limit, but hopefully it should be OK. As one of my Infinity buddies recommended, “keep playing the same list to get used to the nuances, then switch out a troop here or there once you’ve got a handle on it”. Such simple advice that makes total sense. It’s easy to get overwhelmed quickly with all the troops and weapons and bells and whistles in this game. Anyways, much fun to be had.
I just finished a PanO Father Knight about a week ago, and it was my first real stab at doing NMM, which I think works well for Infinity:
Let us not go to Camelot, it is a silly place…
Also, as the title mentioned, I picked up a bunch of figures of Ebay and in the group was an Elvira mini that I can’t find any info about. Such a great little (true scale) 25mm miniature! here she is in all her >ahem< glory:
I made the base up myself with green stuff, I think she’s a great little model. If anyone out there knows the manufacturer, or indeed anything about this release (which I’m 100% sure is unofficial) please let me know!
That’s it for now, cheers all!
P
So anyone that knows me knows my love of toy collecting and especially collecting all things He-Man related. Anyone out there remember the old rubber M.U.S.C.L.E. figures? well San Francisco based collector company Super7 have bought the license and have created several properties under the rubber keshi M.U.S.C.L.E. style, including the Alien franchise, Street Fighter, Mega Man and of course Masters of the Universe.
Why am I talking about this on my wargaming blog? Well, that’s a good question, but MOTU has in fact has a link with wargaming waaaay back in the 80s. Grenadier Miniatures released several box sets under the moniker of ‘paint and play’, which had a bunch of Masters of the Universe characters that would come in a box set with a vac-form bit of terrain to display the minis on, and (i’m assuming) some basic colors to paint your warriors of Eternia.
Now, I would love nothing more than owning these miniatures but they go for a phenomenal amount of money on EvilBay, so unless I find some at a flea market or garage sale, I won’t be getting any of these any time soon. (Hell, I’d even just paint some for someone out there just so I can say I’ve painted them!).
Step in Quest Miniatures, a Canadian based miniature manufacturer who are (from what I can understand) relatively new to the game. Their site is a little sparse right now, but they did debut a first wave of a new MOTU range of miniatures at this year’s PowerCon – a fan run convention of all things Masters of the Universe related. To say I was giddy is an understatement – the first wave has the core characters (including my beloved TEELA!!) with the mention of more waves to come AND and core game system in the works too – hurrah!
The miniatures aren’t ‘officially’ available just yet but apparently if you send a nice message to them, they will sell you a set, or individuals which I believe are $12 a pop, bargain!
Before all this came to light, I had based and painted one of my rubber keshi figures, Teela, which actually came out pretty well! She was a bright luminous green before I went to work:
I see an awful lot of potential in the new miniature line from Quest, and the fact that two of my hobby worlds are colliding has me super excited. Hopefully I can pick up some and do a review soon. Watch this space!
I HAVE THE POWERRRRRR!!!
A little while back I had mentioned about a pretty sweet little Kickstarter that I had pledged toward called The Pantheon of Chaos. Now anyone who has a long standing history with That Miniatures Company* knows about their out-of-print, fantastic, wish-I-hadn’t-sold-my –copies books under the banner: Realm of Chaos. These two mighty volumes were an in-depth look at the four chaos powers in the Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 universes. Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness focused on Khorne and Slannesh, while my personal favorite of the two, Realm of Chaos: The Lost and The Damned dealt specifically with Nurgle (yay!) and Slaanesh. Within these tomes were not only the army lists for fielding chaos in your fantasy armies, but also the renegades for the war-torn battlefields of the far future. They were beautifully illustrated with lots of background fluff and little stories dotted around to give you a glimpse into the insanity that is chaos. Additionally there were plenty of ‘Eavy Metal pages (remember those?) showing some spectacular (and long discontinued) painted miniatures and conversions. You could create a warband, generate special characters with all sorts of mutations which you would then go and create a converted miniature for, all sorts of good stuff!
Now, for me, there is something very special about that era of my gaming history, not only because of the lore and general air that I felt at the time with the hobby, but because of how the miniatures captured my imagination and fed into the narrative. I would spend hours poring over those volumes soaking up all the information and reading and rereading the stories to the dulcet tones of the mighty Bolt Thrower.
But, as with all things, you move on to other interests, and may sell off/give away all your stuff and that’s that. I did exactly that, and then lamented I did that when I got back into the hobby some time later. Waahhh! ( not Waaaaaagh!).
Knightmare Miniatures have crafted a beautiful NOSTALGIAHAMMER in the form of their Pantheon of Chaos line, which is now available to the public, along with their ‘Greenskin Wars’ range (if you are an oldskool Orc/Gobbo player) and their Space Raiders (Space Orcs) range. You will see some very familiar characters in their ranges which I’m sure is in no small part due to Tony Ackland and Kev ‘Goblinmaster’ Adams being on their design/sculpting roster. All of the figures are just incredible and when I first saw them on Kickstarter, I felt that flame that I hadn’t felt since those early days of my misspent youth.
Do yourselves a favor and pick up some goodies from these guys, you will not be disappointed. The prices are actually not bad either! I was amazed at my pledge awards when they dropped through my mailbox (seriously, everything was cast in metal, and the Demon of Malice is massive!), and I cannot wait to get them painted. I believe a warband level skirmish ruleset may be forthcoming in support of the lines at some point soon. Support these guys and show them some love, they deserve it!
Look for a review from WCF very soon. In the meantime, enter the realm of chaos…
(images borrowed from the Pantheon of Chaos site without permission)
*Games Workshop – DURRR!
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays, and that everyone got plenty of minis to keep them going in 2015!
Indeed I feel as though the TARDIS has dropped me off not knowing where the hell the last 12 months have gone. Mind you, if I had a time machine, it would be irrelevant. Heck, even WordPress has changed it’s interface since I last posted… zoinks! Anyway, I digress.
I haven’t been following up too much on what’s been going on in the world of gaming. 2014 saw me drifting further away from Games Workshop releases and focusing more on historical, and tinkering with Judge Dredd miniatures. The latter did in fact reignite a passion for the 2000AD comics and I started picking up trade paperbacks etc of Mega City One’s most famous lawman. Great stuff!!!
Whenever I go into my FLGS I always drift around the GW area, probably more now out of habit than anything. Seeing that 2014 saw (yet another) release of Warhammer 40K (along with the new Space Wolves codex), I finally threw my hands up resignation. I hadn’t even had chance to test out my Wolves with 6th ed rules yet, and here we were, only 2 years later, with 7th edition. I frankly couldn’t be arsed to fork out another $75 (or however much it is now) for the rules and another $50 for the Wolves ‘dex. So I stand at this point now: I’ll play with my forces if it’s 5th or 6th edition, and won’t even entertain the idea of buying any more rule sets until my beloved Sisters get a proper codex release and accompanying figures. Get to it, GW!
This decision did help with my ability to not worry too much about getting 40K figures painted. I think I’m the only one in our group now who’s even mildly interested in it at this point anyway, so I turned my attentions elsewhere.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, me and my friend Colin decided that we wanted to venture further into the past (we’d already been playing Flames of War) and thought we’d have a go at getting some dark age armies together, with him fielding Saxons and me leading the Vikings. We’re going to be using the Hail Caesar rules from Warlord Games for this. My 300 pt Viking force comprises an army general, and 3 commanders each leading a division of 4 units of 24 men, for a grand total of 288 foot sloggers… bugger!!! Work is underway on these forces with Colin leaving me standing somewhat in a cloud of dust! anyway, here is a peek at some Viking goodness:
These have been fun paint but holy heck, I have a ton more to do! I love how they look altogether though, and the payoff and satisfaction is quicker than say painting a squad of Space Marines. I can’t wait to roll the whole army out on the table!
As mentioned, Judge Dredd has been getting some paint table time as well. This time I was focusing on his deadliest of enemies… the four Dark Judges! Dodgy scale/size issues aside (see my review on the Judge Dredd Miniatures game), I had a blast painting these little blighters. It also offered me the ‘mid army burnout’ break I needed away from my Norsemen.
Then, tinkering on my phone, I made this:
Also, other mid-army burnout distractions I painted did actually include some GW miniatures. An Adepta Sororitas Sister and a Space Wolf who I don’t even think is table legal (can anyone clarify that for me?). I mainly painted this guy up because I wanted to see how the Max Mini jet packs would look, and they look GOOD!!
Very pleased how they both turned out!
Nine days into the new year, and it looks like my year is already filling up with plenty of projects. A multi-state project will be going on between me and some friends down in Florida. We all picked the Nurgle lord mini as our paint challenge, and we’re going to follow each others progression through out the whole project, an article will be posted here at some point soon. Additionally, a multi-country project will be also taking place with my buddy Matt over in the Motherland and myself spearheading “Project Death Korps”. Again, watch this space. This is all in addition to getting my dark ages forces prepped and ready for battle as well. Some of you may think I have bitten off more than I can chew. I say BRING IT! 🙂 Never a dull moment at the WCF HQ!
On that note, I shall leave you for now, dear readers. Thank you for all your support, your emails and your comments, it really does mean a lot to this old wolf! Stay tuned for lots more to come!!!
With the advent of no inducted Imperial Guard in the new Sisters of Battle ‘Codex’ (Codex being used in the loosest sense of the term) I have decided to part ways with my IG, painted to represent the 32nd Inquisitorial Guard (I wanted to distinguish them from the ‘regular’ IG troops.
I took them to my FLGS last night and put them up for sale in their cabinet for a modest $65 (only $5 more than buying a Chimera and a box of guard). I’ll leave them there for a month, and if they don’t sell, it’ll be off to Ebay with them. Is it sad that I got a little sentimental when I walked out of the store last night? I guess when you invest time, money and passion in something, you put a bit of yourself in what you produce, but it did feel like I was saying goodbye, lol!
Hopefully someone will be able to use them and give them a good home. Here are some pics I took last night before I took them to the game store:
Give ’em hell, boys!
I just recently (by the skin of my teeth) completed my painting vow for the Bolter and Chainsword painting challenge. Here are my Grey Hunters!
I’m very pleased with how they turned out! let me know what you think!
When Cannons Fade... 