Refighting Amon Hen - SBH

Hi,

House move is on the go so Im not up to much at the moment. We'll be in Limbo for a few months (House purchased stopped after building report) so not much will get done. Hopefully new home )once found) will have suitable gaming area\space for me to not be like a gaming hobo and have to put away stuff at night.

Please note
i) Real Estate agents are usually lying bastards
ii) West Ham are still shit. Every year its the same - Relegation from the Premier league.
iii) There is only so much chocolate I should eat at xmas.
iv) Another relative has passed away in the UK - Getting itchy feet to go back.

A while back I did a 15mm refight of  (Balin Tomb) using Song of Blades and Heroes and it basically devolved into a mickey take  of Lord of the Rings movies.

**SPOILER ALERT**  The report below is a complete non event so don't read below unless your bored.

As I have now had my "Hobbit fix" I shall complete a few comedy re-fights of parts of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit 1 & 2 movies for the laughs.


Amon Hen is a scene in the movie where Frodo decides the Fellowship is cutting his style and that Sam is going a bit "Brokeback Mountain". Aragorn gets a bit emotional but then they are attacked by Orcs and a big fight is viewed.

The movies has the following fight - Aragorn is up against 30+ Uruk Hai.

So I thought I do the same - Aragorn (Ral partha) vs a load of Orcs. (15mm.co.uk). 30 or so Orcs all in a line waiting to get a piece of the actions. All yelling "FIND THE HALFLINGS" with a great gnashing of teeth and stomping of feet.

Unfortunately in the first game the Orcs activate in large droves and swamp Aragorn. A little like the movie I guess as he did charge into them.

 However more orcs activate and it is starting to get a little dicey (The orcs can just reach Aragorn but don't have the ap to fight him) and he soon has three in-front. 3 quickly turns into 5........I can just see Aragorn trying to get Peter Jacksons attention to yell cut.

 Oh Dear. Aragorn activates and attempts to fight - He rolls a 1, the orc rolls a 6. As Aragorn is surrounded by 4 other combatants he gets a -4 a total result of Aragorn 1 Orcs 10. The result is the orcs at least treble his score which in SBH means a gruesome kill (Envisage Aragorn basically getting butchered in little bits). Its one thing about the Tolkien movies, the horrible beheadings and deaths are only shown for Orcs - the are so discriminated against so I guess some Justice for orks has occurred.

Peter Jackson is not happy.

So I roll back to when Aragorn (The joys of directing) is attacked and I decide to make him flee. That was the rest of the game - he simply legs it away from groups of Orcs, Gimli (AND MY AXE) ad the walking Pantene advert Legolas arrive but don't do anything apart from pop a sole orc who is brave enough to have a crack.

 As I rather brassed off now I decide to call it a day

 

Next on my list:

Boromir's last stand

Dwarves v Trolls

Dwarves v Wargs

Dwarves v Goblin City etc etc.

In other news I have been busy painting some WSS figures and have finished my figure for Colonel Barry Taylor, who will lead the fictitious Spanish Foreign unit "Herzogtum von Rechburg" for my Spanish "Amansa" army. I loved painting this front rank figure but am entirely annoyed at the varnish I used as it seems pretty crappy. There is something about a painted 28mm figure that is so appealing, I added some standards to some test figures and they look great so maybe I'll try to get some more done.

I won't mention the 6mm Sudan and Zulu armies I also finished :)

Cheers

Old tanks

I spent an hour or two at Archduke Piccilo's this afternoon "chewing the fat" (As well call talking in NZ) and seeing what he was up to project wise. I offloaded some late war German kits I would never use any time soon (Part of the clear-out due to impending house move) and managed to get a good old PzII in return (Much needed for my Desert War forces)


That great chap Mr Shields in Dunedin also sold me some Italian tanks which are much needed. 2 M13's and Sp guns. This will now take my M13 numbers to 6 which is a good number to have (If anyone has an Italian AFVs to offload let me know). I'll give them a touch up to make them more uniform with my other vehicles.

My WSS generals have arrived from Front Rank. One shall command my forces and the others is for the unit Barry gave me.

Cheers

Surgery and AFV's

Hi,

I had my Septo-rhinoplasty to fix my smashed up nose last Friday and I thought I was going to have so much spare time to paint figures. Well today has been the first day I have been able to as the rest of the time I have felt terrible due to swelling, sleeping and the drug mix I have to take. I have a nose cast on which really is irritating, however the silver lining is that it comes off in 2 hours as well as the stitches (eek !)

I started playing around with my 1/72 Modern US vehicles and attempting my first ever painting of NATO camouflage. The pics below are of the base coats so other coat plus weathering\touch-ups etc etc but I don't mind them. I used Vallejo German Grey for my NATO black but I might give it a touch up with  a darker shade. (Models are Trumpeter 1/72 Stryker and LAV)

And I did something really stupid this week while resting in bed. I watched Zulu, Gettysburg and the four feathers and now a box has been hauled from the garage containing said 6mm\15mm figures.

Cheers

Barry

Hi,

As I've been clearing out my wargame's storage for the big tidy up I have found so many armies, maps and other items related to campaigns and games I have had with the late Barry Taylor. Barry passed away around a month ago after some illness. I only have 15mm Napoleonic armies as Barry wanted me to play some campaigns with some other gents so he can take credit for that project (What was a small Spanish army turned into a large Spanish Army, followed by a Prussian Army and an Austrian Army)

It was only after 3 or so years of gaming I actually got to know Barry a little. Its funny how you can play games with someone but not really know anything about them.

He gave me some half painted WSS figures before he passed as he wanted something to become of them instead of being tipped in the bin after he had gone. I have created a fictional unit lead by one Colonel Taylor and I shall endeavour to paint them with the best of my ability.


Cheerio Barry

Zvedza

Hi,

Our house is now on the market and I have my septorhinoplasty in two weeks so wargaming\painting is now non-existant.

However on a rare visit to the childish hell hole TMP is I found a link to a Zvedza factory visit.

http://miniatures.ru/categories/events/1214-zvezda-kak-rozhdayutsya-soldatiki-ili-polnyj-vpered

I've been to Front Rank, Essex and Wargames  Foundry but have never seen any information on how plastic figures are made.

Cheerio.

Trade Me

Looks like the Wargames\Other section of trade me has a seller auto-listing 14 pages of items, I can't see a way of blocking these listings (Single auctions for a single paint pottle for an entire range) and I'm pretty much over going through every page so I guess I'll just have to not bother.

If anyone in ChCh  is interested in some 28mm Black tree WW2 Germans and Russians (and 76mm AT gun) let me know.

In greater news I  need to have my nose reconstructed so I'll be off for two weeks at some point so I'll have to find myself something to do while I am taking it easy. I have a feeling it will be painting..........I could always buy a T-55 online.

Dettol Surprise !

When I left NZ back in 1997 I stored my war game figures at my mums in a tea-chest style box. Unknown to me a family member placed an extremely heavy box on top that over time crushed what was underneath. Casualties were high and my ww2 plastic armies were pretty much stuffed. Mostly tank barrels and wheels\tracks were broken off so it basically became a box of bits.

 On my return in 2004 I kept them and they are still at mums. Some time last year I was going to throw them out but  I decided to keep them for parts as they are all battered to hell and have so many layers of paint on them they would be beyond useful.....or so I thought.

 I read a blog recently about Dettol and paint stripping and I gave it a go with an old Sdkfz251 and a sdkfz 250/1. Both were missing tracks, wheels etc but they are just testors. They went into soak on sunday and over the last few days I have scrubbed the paint off with an old  Dora Toothbrus. And they are like new - that original matchbox grey plastic and I am simply amazed !. I wear gloves and do it all outside of course, I don't mind the smell of dettol (I spent some time in hopsital when I was younger) and I wear gloves so the only mess is in the container.

It will be a tedious task soaking them all and fixing them but I think I shouold be able to save 60% of what was left. Of course it will take time and a lot of dettol but its quite rewarding - Its mainly 8th army transport I want to save first, then I'll move onto the 14 or so 251's.

So let the games begin.

 

Sidenote

I also painted my fence with my industrial paint sprayer – It has me looking at airbrushes again. I might get a el - cheapo version and try a can of propellant first, and then look at a compressor \tank. I'm expecting heavy resistance from the chief accountant, so I might have to resort to extortion\bribery.

Modern Madness !

Recently I have been focused on painting my 15mm SciFi figures as well as take part on some play testing of a new rule-set. As we are  thinking of moving abodes I decided to start sorting out the large box of figures\models\crap that is a collection of items from over 25+ years of war-gaming. Its always a delight to rifle through the box of shame and find all sorts of boxes filled with figures saved for a later day. My 1/72 WW2 North Africa Armies, 1/72 Pacific, 1/72 Modern and 1/72 ACW figures all sitting nicely for a rainy day (well rainy year more like it). So for a break and something different I whipped out some ww2 figures and will spend a week painting to my hearts content. I've decided to ditch my 28mm WW2 collection (Selling on trademe is such a bore !) and will give away the few WW2 Late War vehicles I have left to the Archduke himself.

Below Esci Spetnaz. 20 years in a box so time they were painted ! I've read a few blogs recently aimed at Command Decision Moderns, I'm half tempted to find my fictional 90's country notes and revise my campaign for a future date. My fictional campaign all spawned from the Programmed Scenarios "Coup De Etat" scenario and a good 15 years of getting figures in dribs and drabs has made it possible. Now all I need is time, space,rules...............

The beginnings of my Italian Army for the desert. A mix of SHQ "sunhat" troops and the good old trusty airfix specials. The figure below was just to test out my colour selection and I quite like it.  Over the years I have picked up a lot of ww2 Early Africa figures\vehicles and now I see S model have a Tankette and Vickers Lt Tank for sale.

 Another British infantry company - Good old Airfix. I literally have hundreds of these figures and they are all at least 30 years old. They are very dear to me as they always bring back such fond memories.

The 3" Mortar platoon - SHQ figures. Not sure on my paint job so I might give them a Devlan Mud wash to tone it down a little. Though seeing as I've been in the North Africa heat myself I can always just say it is pretty sunny !.

 WargamesFactory WSS Figures. Painted as Spanish Borbon Regt (I think - I would have to check my notes). I have 2 painted but they have been sitting there waiting for basing for some time.

Some more 1/72 fun. I was perusing around an NZ model shop the other day and found a series of modern vehicles at 60% off. How could I resist ! Of course it has now rekindled my thoughts on getting an airbrush - The airbrush itself is fine however the compressor is another kettle of fish. I have an industrial paint sprayer (For Fences\interior) however the compressor on that sounds like a jet engine, has too high a pressure and can only take a 2 Litre paint bottle.  Hobby compressors seem to be gigantic and expensive.

So I have had the honour of having some of my work mentioned on the  Ion Age Blog


Hooray for recognition ! Hooray for spare time !

Cheers
Paul

Production Line continues.

Hello,

I've been on this blog now for over 6 years with long periods of inactivity lol. I've gone through maybe 3 laptops in that time so Ive found the blog to be a good gallery of things I can look at when painting, so I don't have to find completed figures in the boxes in the garage.

Another few steady evenings of painting. I have a leaving do on Friday and I need to get a playtest game under my belt before Sunday such is the life of a wargaming gentleman.

The trickle of 6mm ww2 continues with some support items for my US Marines - a couple of HnR Shermans and a jeep (I have tonnes of them and I swear basing them takes longer than painting them). I should have enough soon for a few small games to test out various rules.  These figures must be 10 years old at least.

I am also going hell for leather on my 15mm Ionage figures. I need them to play test some rules so I knocked out a few squads of Muster (militia) - the great thing about Ion  Age is you can make up whatever units\planets\faction you want so I picked a colour and went with it.

 Some Pyridian Retained Knights (Dudes with big guns and nice armour) - The Pyridian's are the Human Empire troops who are fighting in a Civil War against the Rebels while also fighting an ancient enemy once though vanquished into the bowels of space.

Some 10mm (Pendraken) Vietnam for FNG (Two Hour Wargames) - I bought a few packs to have some solo games as the jungle scenery I use for my 6mm will do nicely.

And finally my painted 28mm German tank crew that I will sell. I have some sort of mental block to selling half painted figures so I finished them anyway.

I have about 30 Germans and 30 odd Russians (28mm Black Tree)  I'm selling as well so I think I'll just sell them "as is " because painting them will take ages. Of course if anyone is interested let me know - They need a good home.

Cheerio.

6mm madness

Hello,

I managed to watch 2 hours of a Napoleonic wargame today at Colin's and I was more than happy just to sit there and watch the fun. Afterwards I was tempted to get all my 15mm Napoleonic figures out on a table to see just how much I had painted but the thought of putting it all away afterwards put me off. I also saw some 10mm ww2 figures and I had to beat the "Oh Oh Shiney" goblins down from my mind as I was quite tempted to get some.

So instead I picked another scale ! The below are 6mm Chevaux-Leger figures from Adler, I have a box of them floating about and these guys were painted a year ago but never based. So as I was basing some figures tonight I threw them in the production line. Heaven only knows how I'm supposed to stick a flag to that pole. !.

 I also have a swag of 28mm Germans and Russians that I am going to sell. They are 75% painted so I thought I would finish them and then sell them, as I couldn't bring myself to sell half painted figures. So I have painted a 4 man Panzer crew. They all came from my black tree design "ORDER FROM HELL" - the only order I have ever had go wrong. There was a small "delay" and I received my order in dribs and drabs OVER 2 YEARS. The order was actually fully sent in that time I should be thankful it turned up at all.

... and a 3 man MMG section. Still a little tidy up to go (as well as checking the internet for what colours things were supposed to be).

 Finally I have been painted 6mm Japanese and US Marines for some solo beach landing action, Ive started with the Japanese 70mm Bn guns.( The figures ate HnR Japanese).

 3 Ha Go tanks - HnR again - cheap and effective !.

 At the same time I am finishing my Normandy Germans as I plan to do some small scale airborne actions. My German stuff is mostly GHQ I bought in the 90's (and looking at the prices I should have purchased more back then)

 and an M125 Mortar carrier for Vietnam\Cold War US. HnR again and it will do its job for the price paid.

(I am going to buy some decals as I sick of painting stars already.)

Use Me Sci Fi

So after a little painting last night  I gave USE ME Sci Fi rules (http://www.15mm.co.uk/UM001.htm) a whirl on the kitchen table. I randomly rolled for a Human force. The random rolls were simply based on the figures I had painted and available. The result was one Imperial Security Officer (Laserburn Retained Figure), 2 Embassy Staff (Astro Miniatures) and a rather pointless Repair Droid (GZG).  Then rolling for a Force of Malig's (theionage Goblinoid henchmen) who were going to Assault them (basically it was 2 D6 of Malig's) and I used the USE ME solo rules to determine their behavior. The resulting roll was aggressive which meant they will basically come charging in gins blazing and then try to skewer the humanoids on point things.

The table was simply a hotz mat I picked up of trade me, and a few ammo crates items for the sake of it and the photos were taken from my phone as my camera is dead.


The game started with the humanoids standing around a tracked vehicle waiting on a Transporter to pick them up. The force of Malig's then come charging on the table in a skirmish line and make straight at the enemy.








The game last 4 turns and is summarized as follows. No one can shoot anything with accuracy to save themselves, so the Malig's basically charge. The security officer gets wounded  a great deal, but manages to kill half the Maligs in melee, while the combat droid is destroyed.

The other two humans don't really do anything constructive in melee, neither do the Maligs so they all stand there for two turns waiting for the Security Officer to dispatch people in once he has cleared his own attackers.

Results:

The game was very fast, it was all over in about 20 minutes. The USE ME rules are very easy and simple and seemed like a good rule set for a fast shootemup\hackand slash type of game.  The lack of Morale Rules  did mean that I could fight till the death, but I should read the rules again as I suspect I may have missed something.  if there isn't I can always just make some up. Anyhow it was good fun and the rules were pretty straight forward


As it was 9.15Pm I was tempted to then try TwoHourWargames space 2150 but I thought I'd better devote some time to it properly another night (As I recall the rules are large so more time will be spent flicking though pages) so I went and prepared 50 6mm tanks for painting.

Hello Again Chappies,

I have to say I have been getting royally brassed off with a number of things. Every day I log in "something" seems to change om my pages - I either lose my dashboard link, my reading list or get prompted to activate this profile or that profile or some horse manure like that.(Which I try to avoid like the plague) !

Brass Off number 2 was my package of "theionage" Pyridian troops went amiss for 3 weeks due to NZPost. When it finally turned up it was flat as a pancake and it was quite obvious from the indents on the cardboard that it been run over by some type of vehicle. As I saw the postie put it in the letterbox I fairly certain it didn't get run over in my drive, and the grit on it was still fresh so it looks like it occurred in NZ.

 So two figures died a slow death (They were at the wrong angle, at the wrong time), but the rest came though OK. I have painted two up a test case but I am not very pleased with the results so need to work on my shading schemes\highlight for white uniformed Space imperials.

And my 15mm Nuts\Blood Upon the Risers game is all set to go, I have finished basing and painting so all I need to do now is sort out the characters\men for  first scenario (Flash and Thunder)  and then get cracking. Below are my FlamesOfWar US Paras, not too bad figures  as I bought them an age ago when the packs seemed quite cheap. One of these poor sods gets to land in a field in Normandy.....

 Next to this.........

We shall see what happens !

I also painted up a few German Paras to give my 1939 Dutch a run around at Ebaen Emael (From the Donald Featherstone Wargames book).

Wall of text.

Well, a month or two since another post - Lets see what else can go wrong, broken nose, month long sinus infection, child gastro illness, unfortunate news about two mates of mine. It has certainly been "Bad News Bear" month hasn't it. The only thing I seem to be able to control at the moment has been painting little soldiers of which I am back into full time production.

That then led to the thought - Why paint ? I don't game at all, I haven't in a year as I'm always tired weeknights, weekends are impossible and sometimes I am simply content with my own musings. So my large projects are back in storage as I won't get to game them (Against another human being) for a while in any decent time frame (20mm WW2 Pacific, Western Desert, 28mm Napoleonics) as I simply don't have the time (or energy to lump 600 28mm figures around per army). (There is also a house move being planned soon so I am only getting the small boxes out).

So whats the plan then ? Its solo gaming (I've been a LW member for a while now) at home when I have the time.  My schedule in the next few months is chockablock and I can't see myself getting any time free. Anti-social yes but I can sit in my PJ's with a cup of tea when the house falls silent at night and conquer worlds,and if I can't be bothered then I don't mess anyone around.

So I've "amped" up the painting on my little projects and pulled a few bags out of storage. I've also organized myself a little and have a game\scenario setup for each one so I have something concrete to work to.) The following shall occur in the near future.

• 15mm SciFi game (using
• 15mm Zombie game
• 6mm Marine assault on Parry Island
• 10mm Vietnam skirmish.

Recent news has been 15mm.co.uk\Alternative-Armies have released "The Ion Age" and this has really got my attention. Its space opera\sci-fi "stuff" that instantly appealed to me, it appealed so much I have even been granted a spot on their play testing team for a new rule set.

Other Painting
Below: A test paint job on a Curtis - Hell Diver - It's from a Trumpeter 1/350 pack of 6 (for $8 a pack -  that was under so much dust at acorn models) mainly meant for model aircraft carriers. So as I am sorting out my 6mm WW2 figures (Japanese, US Marines, 1944 Germans and 1944 British\Canadians) I thought I'd give it a crack. I might try and find some 1/300 decals (If they exist) as I can't paint stars to save myself.

 A 15mm PzIII for my Nuts - Blood Upon The Risers campaign. I painted it last year but it was sitting on my painting tray so it was the first cab off the rank so to speak.

Zombies ! I enjoy the zombie apocalypse style of game - it can throw up so many interesting scenarios (Shooting wise that is not the old HBO "Days of our walking dead lives" claptrap :) ). So I have some terrain, I have some cars and now I have a few beat cops ready to pop a few zeds. I even have a Takeaway restaurant to set it all around (To come)!.

 A few "country types" ready for a bit of the old country hoe-down.

 And some very old zombies (15mm.co.uk) from a decade or two ago at least.

That's it time being - The above are only a few of the hundred of so figures I've done in the last few weeks so hopefully this blog will see more action soon.

Take care.

Walcheren fever

Where have I been............I have been in Australia on and off over the last few months which has coincided with  a downturn in wargaming\painting hobby itself. I was going to take part in the ACW Gettysburg refight in Christchurch this weekend but I had to pull out as I needed to be in Australia yet again for work. I have also sold a TC3 property (after some lengthy process as the buyer turned out to be one of the biggest idiots I have ever dealt with), changed jobs and run a half marathon.

However, I am not in Australia I am home (in NZ) in bed with pneumonia and have been in bed since Thursday morning. It looks like I will be in bed for a few days yet as I am trying to avoid going into hospital as they are such frightful places and Id rather stay here drugged up to the hilt, reading about Astronomy on the laptop and playing Napoleonic PC games. I got sick as I was tired from constant travel, dealing with idiots, the fact its horribly cold in nz at the moment and general lack of sleep due to children, work and coughs.

To amuse myself I found a Napoleonic add-on for a game called mount and blade warband - which is extremely entertaining. Its a first person shooter and you can be one of several troop types per nation and it is multiplayer, so every person in the game is another real person.

It also has musicians so you can play regimental music for the host nation, and also play pianos

But enough of this silliness !!
Anyways hopefully once the lurg has gone I might look at getting fernando enterprises to paint some figures for me to get a project going asap.

Take care all.
Paul