Another Year Incoming

Things here have obviously been quiet. 

As the none of you who've noticed, I haven't posted. There's been relatively little to post about in my hobby. Real life right now just isn't presenting many opportunities for hobby or gaming. I did not manage to get any more East Front scenery painted up as I'd hoped. 

I did manage to attend a 3-game Bolt Action event on Veteran's/Memorial Day last month with my goodest mate Densmol and finished middle of the pack. Fun three games with very pleasant opponents, two of which I'd never played against before. (No pics were taken though as I'd managed to guzzle a beer or two after meeting up with the estimable Stew from the Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth blog. - He's a very bad influence I tell ya!) 

 Here are two old resin minis from a game that was originally Kickstarted (1st Edition) in 2014, Relic Knights, then a 2nd Edition was Kickstarted in 2017. Neither Kickstarter project was run well and only the first was actually fully fulfilled by the creators who are now a bankrupt entity. (I even posted about hobby activity on those original minis back in 2014!) So where does this leave the game? (I hear you not ask) Well dear reader, a new (way) smaller but far better ran game company bought the rights to the game title and all of it's existing sculpts based out of Texas (Ignition Core Games) and they have very selectively, slowly and cleverly been releasing product for the game's 2nd Edition under their own banner. So far it has a small and enthusiastic following on Facebook and Discord and I like the way the new owners are so interactive with that following. I hope to be afforded time next year to work on a number of minis for this new edition of the game in 2026 and even to try out the rules. Watch this space!

These resin figs are from the Cersi Speed Circuit faction. The guy on the left is Asger Faust. I kept his paintjob simple as his game art shows some designs on his coat, but I was not in the mood to try freehanding such nonsense. The pink-haired filly on the right is one of the Pit Crew girls (There is a second girl of the team half-painted as I type this) and with that quite insane facial expression she has, I fully do not trust her intentions on where she thinks that huge wrench should be placed. 

As far as Real Life: I got a small promotion at work in August and am currently doing my best to pass a 12-month probation period, so I've had to apply myself rather more than normal LOL. This blog also had a birthday at the beginning of October, turning an impressive 14 years old. AND I turned 49  that month and found myself regularly dour at the realisation that this is my last year of my 40's. So things have happened, just not much hobby. I'm not sure if I'll even have anything blog-worthy to post up before the New Year; free time as mentioned is hard to come by and there are a LOT of seasonal gatherings coming up. But you never know, lady Fate may well smile upon this humble hobbyist and afford him 2-3 hours for painting before January and the peace he finds in it?

Regardless, with a new year on the horizon, I once again turn to hope for opportunities to reveal themselves so that I might be able to work on some of my unpainted mountain and even manage to get some gaming in. Wish me luck. I have tried hard to not add much to my pile'o'shame, but priorities for my hobby this year are looking like: 

1. Painting more armour for my WW2 Greeks (Picked up a trio of rubbish light tanks on a Black Friday sale just to have more options for list building in Bolt Action)

2. Painting my WW2 Late War Canadians, namely that pair of Buffalo transports, outstanding infantry squads and the new pair of WASP Universal Carriers that were also bought in the Black Friday purchase.

3. Relic Knights - me and J bought into some of this new stuff. It arrived at his place yesterday. We are both jazzed about it, so out came all the 1st Ed stuff from my storage to see just how many options we'd have including the new additions for future games. Yeesh... that's a LOT to paint up. 

4. I need more time.

This short post ends with "Merry Christmas", "Happy Hannukah", "Happy Kwanzaa" and enjoy whatever other holiday celebrations are important to you at this time of year with your loved ones; I certainly intend to do so with my own. Stay safe out there in this far too frequently frightening world.

Much love, 

- Dai  

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It's all Greek to me! (Part 8 - Infantry Squad #3 Complete! And a whole lot more.)

**Settle down, grab a beverage and some reading glasses - this post is going to be a long one. **

Well, as in most cases, "best laid plans" tend to end up floundering and so my plans in fine form for this project followed suit in short order. I managed to get the 3rd squad of Greek infantry I mentioned in my last post finished but could only find time to slap on a couple of base colours onto the 4th squad and so had to attend the event on Saturday 7th February with only 95% of my force fully painted. Not bad, but not what I wanted. 

The 3rd squad though does look rather splendid and fits in nicely with the others I've painted up so far. Once again, these are metal sculpts by Great Escape Games and were fun to paint.

Infantry Squad #3 - lots of tasty 'tache's in this group.

Also painted up this fun little Orthodox priest who I add to my FAO team who'll ask the big feller above for extra luck getting those off-table artillery strikes on target for once. (With my dice rolling, I need all the help I can get!)

This little fellow has since been given a coat of flat varnish. 

The whole Greek WW2 collection as it stands - best pics I could get with the time, space and lighting available. Just a pair of trucks to paint up and then they'll be done, "Fully Painted" if we want to be specific and add titles. For now. (I'd like to pick up a few more pieces of armour and another pair of Bren Carriers, but those are purchases for next year.)

On February 8th I attended the 2nd annual Operation Sweetheart event at GameKastle Sacramento. It was the first 3rd edition event in the area, and I played my first three games of the new edition, winning one and losing the following two. Not a bad result, especially considering as I brought my Greeks and they had little to no anti-armour options. A fun day and great to see both locals and travelling players from the Reno community. There was a good turn-out including some new players and also a young-blood (13 I think?). Being that the event was 4 months ago I don't recall hard fast details, but my first game (A win vs late war Germans) was highlighted by my rolling immensely well, the second (A loss vs an all over the place german list) marred by my opponent bringing an almost all unpainted army who also proxied about half his force, and the third and last game (A loss vs late war Brits) where my dice and lack of ability to hurt the multiple armoured options of my opponent caused a little frustration. Regardless of the result, a good time was had and it was fun to take my Greeks to an event.

Pics are in no particular order and included here just so you have pretty things to look at. 

Sideways? Poor editing on  my part.

Now that the event is done and long past, that 4th infantry squad will get done.... sometime. Moments for hobby are back to being few and far between - curse you real life!

I also managed to get in a game with my gaming pal Densmol whilst our respective wives sat on the lawn and drank alcoholic seltzers and chatted about whatever it is women discuss when menfolk are elsewhere. As you can see in the pictures, this was my test run also for my WW2 Airfield terrain setup. Still more to add and plenty to paint up, especially that Heinkel, (The large building is not part of the set along with some of the scatter terrain - I just needed to fill the table moreso) but I like the direction it's headed.

I provided forces for both sides - Densmol played my Winter Germans and I faced off against them with my Winter Soviets. It was a fun learning game for both of us using the now not-new 3rd Edition of Bolt Action. Densmol ended up winning, lots of new rules were forgotten or plain mis-played, but we both had fun. 

Blanket as a game mat. Not bad, but not great. Needs some variation in shades of green and a jolly good iron!

One drunken evening I found myself trawling online stores and made some purchases. I only found this out the following morning when I saw the order confirmation emails in my inbox. (Don't tell the wife.)

Water Buffalos for my Late War Canadians

Fuel Truck for my Airfield terrain, BA-10 for my Winter Soviets and a pair of sd.kfz 10/4's for my Germans. 

Also some "not Beakie Space Marines" by another Etsy store that I had the seller upscale a little to the same size as Primaris cos I like my mutant human warriors huge. (Poor Greek soldier included for scale)

The Beakies came in a squad of 5 cool individual sculpts. I also stupidly jumped on the chance to pick up an in scale classic style Space Marine Dreadnought by Hybrid Miniatures on Facebook. I have a buying problem, it's true.

It's always nice to have new things, even if you really don't have time to paint them.

Last year I put a (very) small amount of cash into a Kickstarter for some 3D print stl files for some East Front terrain. I then found out my co-worker has a printer at her home and she offered to print all the files out if I provided the filament. So here are some of the prints - very crisp and well detailed and currently in the queue for primer, paint and snow effects, hopefully getting done this Summer. Am hoping joining Dave Stone's "Summer of Scenery" challenge at his blog, will help motivate me.

Soviet Schoolhouse and a tin-roof'd barn

Some cool scatter terrain to add extra flavour

Log cabins

A small Orthodox chapel. I also have some benches to place inside. 

Back to painting progress - I managed to get in some painting time this last week whilst my wife was away on a trip to Oregon to visit her grandparents. 

First off a pair of Anti-Tank Rifle teams for my Greeks, bringing the total of these I can drop on the table to 3.

More metals sculpts by Great Escape Games

And then a pair of furry faced warriors for anthropomorphic skirmish game Burrows and Badgers. Both leaders of their respective warbands. These are the first painted for a campaign me and my pal J are going to play through when opportunity arises in the future.

Sir Rowland Othyr, Otter Lansknecht

And Ylvis Sez, leader of the Freebeasts

 And lastly, on the 24th of June, I got in a game of Bolt Action at my mate Stephen's place. 1000 points each side, I took my Greeks again and he faced off with some cool Early War Germans (A mix of Fallschirmjager veterans and Regular Heer.). My dice were hot this game and once again, even though I really should have struggled to deal with his German armour, somehow I managed to drop mortar rounds in the right places and blew them up and then proceeded to grind down his support assets to win 10-9. Beautiful table to play on and a great host. 

My Greeks

Stephen's Germans

And some pics in no particular order - just here to look cool. Stephen's setup was great looking and made for a very narrative gameplay.

A very pinned out sd.kfz 222 armoured car. Crazy what VB and Light mortars can do!

The man himself - Stephen is also the Official Warlord Raider for Northern California and Nevada and origanises all the events and tournaments.

Okay done now. If you managed to read this far down, apologies for the lengthy silence. Am hoping I'll have time and enough content to post again before the blog's 14th birthday on 1st October, but I make no promises as this summer is super busy with famikly stuff. 

Hope all are well and happy out there,

- Dai

Clever Hans - part 9 (Medic and a birthday gift)

 A quick post today to show off four more mini's painted to add to my quota for the year to date.

First off a WW2 German medic sculpted in a Winter theme. A very cool sculpt and was relatively swift to paint up once I figured out who's arm was where and so forth. Completely forgot to add my usual red wash to the exposed flesh areas like the rest of my Winter collection so I may well go back and do that at a later date.

Mini by Warlord Games. 

My Freehanded Red Crosses are pretty poor now I'm looking at them. 

If you've got a bandage over your eye, then there needs to be blood seeping through. It is so.

 Next up are a trio of Oathsworn Miniatures Burrows and Badgers figs. I painted them up for my friend Derek as a everso slightly belated birthday gift for his 43rd birthday this last St Patricks Day. We got together a bit ago and played our first game of this ruleset and as I'd hoped (Read: planned) he liked it so much he announced he'd invest in the rulebook and his own team in the nearish future. So these three can be added to his own planned warband or not - his choice. He at least seemed to like them. :)

First off a Bat Assassin. Or "Batssassin" as he's known. Simple paint job on a characterful sculpt as always.

Grass tuft's superglue dried white! >_< Told Derek to add a drop of brown wash over it and that shold take care of it.

Next up is a Mole warrior wearing some other critter's bones. He has a very low-tech look which I like.

Little blue markings to look like simple woad designs or some such. The Toad has similar markings on it's Bone pieces too.

This is a fearsome Toad warrior wearing (I believe) the skull of a Wildcat. I like to think he/she gets power from the dead spirits who formerly called that skull their "head".

Creepy Toad-ish sideways pupils.

Tried to make the cloak look like a Badgers pelt taken from a fallen enemy. Nasty bugger this Toad.

Note the simple blue woad type markings on the bone areas to key in with the Mole.

And that's it for a while. Taking a week off from the paint station so hoping to have more to show off in a fortnight. 

Hope all are staying well out there,

- Dai

03/21/2022, week# 12 - 24/100 mini's done (Still on target).

More Odds and Sods

More finished stuff hot off the paint station - a Paladin, the second Jomsviking Bondi mentioned in my last post and a small Burrows and Badgers scatter terrain piece. 

First up is the Paladin, an old early 80’s TSR Dungeons and Dragons Paladin. I named him Rogelio de la Vega (Bonus interwebs points for getting that random reference.) and decided I’d paint him up in colours I don’t normally choose, so it was a fun experiment and I think he came out just fine. I like to think that he is a terrible dandy and an obvious show off, more likely to step in to stop a nefarious act only to bolster his reputation in the eyes of onlookers.

White plate armour? That must mean this guy has some money to spend on enameling!

The crossed keys symbol doesn’t feature in my limited DnD searches online. Guessing it’s from the real life Catholic reference? Or not. Either way, it helped key in (see what I did there?) the purple in his colour scheme beyond his feathers.

Pale pink cloak and darker pink tunic were both applied in craft paints. Rather surprised with how good their finish looks!

This next bloke is a metal mini by Gripping Beast, a Jomsviking Bondi for my Dark Ages project. That fancy helmet and green poncho-cloak-thing combo must have been a nice part of a loot pilefrom a raid in the Mediterranean or some such. I kept the paint job on this one simple so he wouldn’t stand out too much from the others in his unit.

Not sure this feller is all that fearsome like the other  Vikings? Don’t tell him I said that though

Last up for this post is a little resin piece of scatter terrain. I got it for my church terrain (to be featured in a later post) and it’ll add some fun Burrows and Badgers style design elements to the whole affair. Simple painting to look like the stone mausoleum it’s supposed to represent.  

Basic paint job so it looks stone-y. Was going to try for a marble effect but… no, not this time.

Sister Tomasina looks to the scripture whilst next to the  mausoleum of Sir Gorgonzola. Little does she know, his life crumbled about him when pressure was applied.

There’ll be more soon, tho at a bit of a slower progression.

Dearly hope all are well out there,

- Dai