Just completed three more figures for my PanOceanean forces for Infinity – a Svalarheima Nisse with sniper rifle, a Nisse with HMG and an Akali Sikh drop trooper. As with my Fusiliers I painted a little while back, the basis of the paint job on these was to look good from three feet away, as I want a fully painted force on the table in a relatively short time.
They mean business.
The HMG Nisse is an older model, but she’s beautifully sculpted and the animation in the pose is just great. The sculpt on the back of the leather jacket is superb. So much so, I forgot to take a picture! Really loving the anime vibe of this game, and I think it translates into the slightly brighter palette that I’ve been using for them.
Core team shot:
Suppressing an uprising near you!
Very happy with the overall look so far. I’ve got bunches of other miniatures to add to the force, so expect to see some more being added soon.
Lastly, a big THANK YOU to all who partook in the voting for the Horus Project poll. The option for the white ceremonial armor didn’t event get one vote, and ironically both the black armor option and the Sons of Horus colors ended up in a tie… ARGH! So, to that end, I’ll ask Superherobossladywife tonight which she likes and that will be the deciding vote….
Yes! another strike from the D20 list that I chatted about in my previous post – 3 PanOceania Fusiliers with Combi Rifles. I’ve ordered decals for the shoulder pads, but I don’t have them yet, but the paint is DONE! I’m really liking the overall feel I’m getting with these, and happy that my tabletop quality isn’t looking too bad:
I think it goes without saying that being in this hobby we all come to that point sooner or later where we have amassed a ‘Pile of Shame’ – that drawer/box/cupboard/closet/storage unit that has a literal mound of unpainted miniatures and vehicle and scenery kits. This is not to say that you don’t have plans for them and that you’re just buying up lots of plastic or metal for the sake of it (or maybe some of you do? hey, I’m not here to judge). We as gamers (for the most part) suffer from the OITNS or “Ooooh, It’s The New Shiny”, and it’s very easy to fall into this. With the number of new games, companies, Kickstarter campaigns, new releases etc growing exponentially it’s very easy to get blown around by the winds of change (maybe Tzeentch has a hand in this?). There is SO MUCH cool stuff on the market now, it’s hard to turn around and walk away (I’m guilty of this for sure).
All this aside, I was watching a Tabletop Minions video on YouTube on the train ride home from work the other day, and Uncle Atom hit on this very subject. Take a few minutes out and watch the video below >pa-CHOW<
Uncle Atom certainly hits on some interesting points for sure. I’ve recently been on a bit of a purge through my Pile of Shame and took a bunch of stuff to my FLGS to trade in for store credit (Sisters of Battle – 2019, remember? Speculating to accumulate baby!). I had begun to feel a level of anxiety every time I went into the Nerd Closet, being greeted by lots and lots and lots of unpainted or undercoated miniatures staring back at me. It was then I realized that this is a hobby, and it shouldn’t be making me feel crappy and down about having so much gathering dust. So, as well as cashing in a bunch of Forge World items and some other guff, I thought to myself “how can I start chugging through and get some momentum going with painting this stuff?”. It presented a set of challenges in that I needed to prioritize what games I was playing and the frequency of those games. At the moment I play almost exclusively Infinity, but then I thought “well, I’m going to get burnout if I’m painting nothing but Infinity miniatures”. So with this in mind I approached it from a different angle.
And thus the ‘D20 table was born’.
The D20 Table was basically an idea I had to make the selection process for my painting a little bit more fun, and to enforce some variation to keep the interest going. It’s a simple idea, I created a table in Excel with twenty line items which are all minis from games that I play/are about to play. The 1-20 obviously corresponds to the dice roll that randomly selects what i’ll be painting next. I’ve been using it for the last few weeks, and here is what I have struck from the list so far:
I’m currently working on number 8 – three PanOceania Fusiliers, which are almost done:
It’s given me a hand with wanting to get my minis painted, and it feels good to strike another line off the list. I get either my son or my wife to roll the dice, so they actually become a little invested how their ‘selection’ is coming along. The other thing that has helped is to make a conscious decision to paint to a decent tabletop standard. The Fusiliers above have taken maybe about 5 hours from start to this point, with maybe a half hour left in them to paint the bases and varnish them. It almost felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders when I told myself that not every single miniature needs to have 10-15 hours spent on it, as that would be when the hammer blow came in and I’d get the burnout when I look at the tons of other stuff I had to wade through.
PanO bot – another item from the list – DONE!
I feel that stocking up (I won’t use the term hoarder) and burnout/fatigue can go hand in hand, so I’m really trying to make an effort to knock some effing great holes in my inventory over the coming year, so this will be an ongoing saga. I hope that you’ll join me on my journey.
I’d love to hear any comments on how any of you combat the burnout, or the Pile of Shame in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
OK!! so last week I jumped feet first into my first (ever) tournament, which was held at Grognard Games. It was with much trepidation that I went into this, mainly because I’m not really interested in playing tabletop games in a competitive environment, I much prefer to have casual games with no pressure. Couple this with the fact that I’m still really a n00b and not familiar with the rules as much as I’d like to be, well it makes for an intimidating prospect. Had it not been for the fact that my fellow Infinity players had said “ah don’t worry about it, it’ll be a good learning experience for you” and that they are a friendly bunch, then I’d have had no part in it at all.
On the mean streets
In my last post I put up the list I intended to use for said event, as I’d been playing it on the Thursday night games and wanted to test it a little further (but mostly to familiarize myself with how things work). It is a fairly straight forward list, nothing too crazy, and in my head I wanted to make sure I had good long range heave hitters (sniper rifle, missile launcher), good mid-range stuff (HMG, Combi-rifles – both of which can suppression fire), and then some good up-close stuff like boarding shotguns.
My first game was against Haqqislam, and held up relatively well, although I achieved no objectives (I took down the most troops though). My 10 orders against about 16 was not fun. Coordinated orders, targeting and other shenanigans kept me from getting to my objectives. My second game was against Tohaa I believe, and while I was quick to get guys down into the streets, securing one objective, I got literally slaughtered by a bunch of stuff that had some obscene ARO nonsense that just steamrollered me. Ouch.
Game three I fared slightly better than game two, but not much, and this time I was actually able to take some enemy guys down. I tried to learn from my previous losses and use my Aquila in a more aggressive way, which kinda paid off a little, but ultimately I was crushed under sheer weight of numbers. First lesson: Keep your cheerleaders (Fusiliers) to hold ground, send your heavy infantry to start putting the hurt on the enemy. Second lesson: TAKE A F*CKING HACKER AND SOME REMOTES!
Anyway. Despite getting my dangly bits served up to me on a plate, I had a bloody good time, and learned a lot about the game, so it was a winning situation for me ultimately. Some of the best games I’ve had are ones that I’ve lost. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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!
Mornin’ all! just a super quick post while i’m enjoying some Dark Matter coffee…
Had a really fun game of Flames of War about a week ago against my arch nemesis Colin. Once again his German forces tried to overthrow the British lines, but to no avail. One thing that scares me witless are those bloody tanks that the Jerrys have, and they made short work of my Sherman armored divisions (I really need to try some other tanks!). I responded in kind with some ruthless artillery strikes (which weren’t always that great, but when they hit, they hit hard!). Also, infantry assaults on tanks are a lot of fun…
Infantry that are dug in are great for holding ground, and are a pain in the arse to get rid of. Colin did whittle down some of my rifle platoons, but true to their nickname of the British Bulldogs, they gave the Hun no quarter.
This was our first game in probably almost 2 years, and we were both relearning the game as the new rule set is out. I have to say that the game seems to flow a little better with this new set, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A little phone app magic added…
In other news, I painted up Beastman that I received from Quest Miniatures. I went with the FILMation colors and am really pleased with the results. I used a white undercoat as the colors were going to be primarily brighter than I normally paint, and I forgot how much fun it is to be painting in a vibrant palette. Years and years of painting ‘mighty grimdark’ 40K stuff got me undercoating nearly everything in black. Anyway, here he is:
Grrrrrr!
And finally, I finished another ORC Trooper for my PanOceania Infinity force. I was inspired by Priss from Bubblegum Crisis for the colors, and I think I’m going to get 3 more ORC troopers and paint them up in the other Knight Sabers colors. Infinity is basically a Manga skirmish game after all…
Super quick update today, finished my Aquila Guard for my small (but growing) Infinity PanOceania force. Pretty pleased with the results! Here he is:
I really like the posing on this guy, the way the jacket is flowing, you can almost hear the howling wind blowing down the boulevard while he locks onto his next target with his sensors. I’m hoping that I can knock out 3 fusiliers in the next couple of weeks so I can actually start playing with a painted unit! Here is a group shot of the ones I’ve done so far:
I’m glad I went with the purple instead of the regular blue for PanO. More coming soon!
lastly, I’d like to say a big THANKS to all the new people who have subscribed to my blog. This means I’m going to have to start writing with more substance now lol! Cheers!
Just a quick update today on my newly painted Swiss Trooper for my PanOceania Neoterran Capitaline Army:
Painting Infinity miniatures is very satisfying, and I love the fact that I don’t need dozens of miniatures to be able to play. I may actually be able to paint an entire force lol! Next up, Peacemaker Dronbots!
In other news, I’m starting to sell off some miniatures that i’ll never get around to painting, you can see my ‘for sale’ stuff HERE – I’ll be adding more stuff shortly, so take a peep!
Hello! I return from the caves to bring you another post from the WCF bunker. My world has been somewhat turned on my head in the last few weeks. In early March I received a phone call from my stepmom who was in absolute pieces to tell me that my dad had passed away. It was a complete bolt out of the blue which I was totally unprepared for. Living in a different country has its advantages, but this is definitely one of the times when it does not. Suddenly I very much felt the 3300 miles that separated me and my family as I set about making arrangements to fly home, as well as being skyped in to talk with funeral directors etc. I won’t go into the whole story, but needless to say I am devastated by his passing, but thankful that I have such a supportive wife and family to help me deal with it all. We had been out in England for christmas last year, and I’m so glad that I had some quality time with dad, and that he got to meet his newest grandson. I hadn’t expected for us to be making a trip back there so soon.
March 22 was the day that I helped carry my dad to his resting place, ready for his next adventure. I miss him terribly but know one day I shall see him again. Love you dad xxx
Don’t take anything for granted, friends.
Painting has given me something to focus on, and to take me out of things a little so I can distract myself. Thank the gods for hobbies!
Anyway, as I had mentioned in a previous post, I had discovered the wondrous world of Infinity. I had heard that it was a pretty intense game, and quite complex, something that normally would put me off investigating, but after checking out the figures and the art/fluff, I got reeled in, and I’m glad I did! I hadn’t seriously taken a plunge, but a week or two ago I bit my lip, held my breath for a moment and bought the N3 edition of the Infinity rules. While I had a bit of sticker shock with the price, a swift glance through the 2 books quickly dissolved any anxiety about dropping that kind of cash (although its probably in the range of a 40K rulebook cost wise, I’m just a tight-arse). You get a rulebook and a core book with fluff and army lists. I like the fact that they split it into two volumes, as I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a lot nicer to have to carry a lighter weight book around than attempting to navigate through war and peace to find the rules you need. Anyhoo, the art is great (taking me back to my days of going to Anime conventions, which I’ll be going to next weekend too, and reading lots of Manga), and the fluff is really engaging.
PanOceania is my faction of choice for now (until I get fully acquainted, and fully painted). They seem to be the most ‘vanilla’ faction, which is fine for me to get my feet wet. Lots of long range shooty goodness, and some really great troops types available. Also, I have a thing for the Bubblegum Crisis style helmets a lot of them seem to wear, so double win!
I’ve been up to a new FLGS near me over the last few weeks to start learning the ropes (I’m more of a visual learner) and have enjoyed dropping in on a couple of games here and there. Last week and last night, however, I had my own first actual games, me vs. an opponent, under the watchful eye of Chris who has taken me under his wing to teach me the rules. Of the four games I have played so far, I have won three of them. Probably beginners luck, or the new PanO dice I bought, who knows! Last night I was playing the first three missions in the Operation: Red Veil set, and I had a blast! I really got to grips with movement and basic combat, and discovered just how much fun Auxilas with bots can be! Mechanized deployment can be a lot of fun with Dronebots, I just need to be more aggressive in using them.
Some shots from last nights game:
A fusilier keeps a watchful eye
Flamebot rampage!
Firestorm mission layout
Now… where to deploy?
It’s been a long time that I’ve actually had this much fun with a game (as well as Flames of War), and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I look forward to bringing you battle reports and whatnot soon. In the meantime I will continue my tutelage and work on my troops. Speaking of which, I just finished this gal:
Well, that’s it for now, thanks for tuning in! Now I’ve got my game back on, i’ll actually have something to post about! Until next time, my friends…
When Cannons Fade... 