Fall 2011 Project Pile

After a summer and early fall in which very, very little painting was accomplished, I am trying to get the motor running again. My painting style revolves a lot around momentum - if I paint one or two figures, I'll probalby do 20 or 30. Moving was very disruptive to this routine, as a number of things I had set aside "so I would not lose them" (decals, dullcote, glosscote, paint brushes) etc. disappeared during the move.

By now I have managed to locate/replace most of the missing stuff, and I am trying to get a few projects from all over the spectrum moving forward. Perhaps because of the lack of output over the past few months, my efforts are even more scattered than usual for me (and that's saying a lot). I'm hoping this little post will serve as a bit of a target list to help get me focused.

Napoleonics

My 25/28mm Austrian contingent is off to a good start, but reinforcements are needed. Curt and I are planning to get together in the new year, and I hope to roll out with a newly reinforced brigade. I figure I will need to add four full new line infantry battalions, and a couple more artillery pieces, to create a serious fighting column to stand up to Napoleon's lackeys.



With each infantry battalion clocking in at 38 foot models and one mounted officer, that's a fair chunk of painting - 156 models, I think. On the plus side, however, I've got a fair bit of experience painting Austrian infantry figures, so the job goes very fast. Up first is a battalion of Foundry castings with yellow facings (a picture of the first "stick" is above). I've already finished 19 foot troops and one mounted officer for these guys in just over three weeks.

To shake things up, I will also do a battalion using the new plastic models from Victrix.



These guys will have light/sky blue facings on their uniforms. I hope to get into more detail regarding the Victrix models on a seperate review post later. Quick verdict: not too bad. A photo of my first "test painted" figure is below.



Finally, for Napoleonics, I also need to finish off my unit of Hussars - they are three troopers short of the target complement of 24 models (it's a long story, involving a lot of Foundry rage, problems from the move etc.). That's a ton of painting, but with the election gone and the NFL and NHL in full swing, I should find some time to make major progress.

15mm Sci-Fi

It's all the rage, and I'm fully infected. I am adding some heavy weapons and more vehicles to my Federal Army troops, and another platoon of Control Battalion infantry.

I'm also doing a "Nova Respublik" force - these are the lastes 15mm sci-infantry from Khurasan, and they are AWESOME. Watch for a product review/progress shots just as soon as I figure out how I will paint the vehicles...

28mm Sci-Fi

The lads in the Gün Schwarm ranks haven't seem some reinforcements in a long time. While it's been some time since they have confronted the deluded Kommulists on the battlefield, the last encounter, in which several new additions to the FutureKom lineup hit hard, still stings. Adding insult to injury, the Gün Schwarm grunts STILL do not have proper APCs/IFVs...well, stay tuned for a major upgrade to the Gün's fighting mobility, and some improved infantry to boot...

1/200 Sci Fi

While unpacking during the move, I stumbled across some more un-opened 1/200 Nichimo Regult model kits. Robotech is always a hoot, and another Robotech game very soon would be a blast. If there is one thing a Robotech game could always use, it's more battle pods. Each box has two models, and I have a pair of Zentreadi Battle Pods primed and ready for painting...

10mm Modern

Could I possibly do moderns in another scale? Well, OF COURSE I can. After some frustrating test figures from QRF (rapid review - the models SUCK), I have found the "Minifig" line has some great possibilities...stay tuned for some insane project updates on this file in the coming weeks!

So that's that - pretty unfocused, but at least some stuff IS in fact getting painted. I hope to have some more pictures for the blog very soon.

And we're back!

It's been quite a delay - between moving, and then working in the recent Manitoba provincial election, I've painted nary a figure for almost three bloody months! To make matters worse, my 15mm sci-fi stuff had disappeared during the move, wrangled by the packing people. My mistake - setting them aside specifically so they wouldn't be packed. That'll learn me....

Well, democracy has run its course for now and we have unpacked nearly all of our stuff at the new place, including a box from the garage that had the label "Misc. Basement", which included a lamp, a face mask for a hockey helmet, and my 15mm sci-fi stuff! Fortunately the foam carrier (seen in the photo above) protected the painted vehicles from the hockey mask.

I'm hoping the Control Battalion and Federal Army from Khurasan can make their debut on the gaming table this week, as I feverishly try and catch up with the 15mm sci-fi painting frenzy in the group.

Future War Commander Battle Report

Last week we rolled out Future War Commander again, mainly because I wanted to see Conscript Mike's new Sahadeen Army out on the table.  I also had some new 15mm terrain semi-completed so I wanted to use those as well.  So we decided to fire up a 2500 point game pitting the Sahadeen rebels against the Earth Force oppressors.

The battlefield consisted of a built up area containing two objective buildings, and a third objective structure near the other table edge.  The scenario required the attacker (Sahadeen Mike) to destroy the three objectives while the defender (Earth Force, me) defended them.  I had to deploy a third of my force on table with the rest coming via mobile deployment.  All of Mike's army mobile deployed and he got first turn.

The game was a bit difficult for me, for two reasons.  One, I had only one command stand on-table and it was therefore rather difficult to control the sentry force.  Second, I kept forgetting to move the command stand in the end phase so the rolls stayed difficult due to distance from the troops!

Mike's big tank (on hill in background) dwarfed even my heaviest stuff.

We also learned that in FWC, taking a defended building is very difficult when the defenders are unsuppressed.  This is as it should be!

Here's a typical Command roll for my army command stand.  It's been this way every time I've used these guys.  I wonder if the Khurasan command figures are somehow incompatible with the Rebel Minis models that make up the rest of the army...?

Mike kabooms an objective.  As I recall, the troops sent in to do the job ended up atomized due to a catastrophic explosion.

"We have you partially surrounded. Come out with your hands up!"

 Mike's flanking force (commanded by Brian) is about to roll up on the third objective.

The end result was a clear victory for Mike's Sahadeen rebels.

In related news, I received a review copy of Tomorrow's War in the post today and we will proceed to set up a game in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned to the blog!

Dystopian Wars - Prussian Fleet

First, my apologies for cross-posting, but as I promised to keep you all updated on my 'Dystopian Wars' project (whether you like it or not) I trust I can be forgiven.

I decided to paint up my Prussians in the spirit of early war Luftwaffe colours. I've always liked the high contrast of the grey/green against the yellow and thought the scheme would transfer well to the quasi sci-fi theme of the Dystopian Wars' models.

On many of the castings you'll see these coil-type structures amidships and/or at the stern. These are tesla weapons that are used both against ship systems and can also cause hits on ship's crews. In the game the Prussian ships are very fast and carry extra boarding parties - these bonuses, combined with the tesla weapons, tend to make them very dangerous customers when they get close-in.

Three of the ten Frigates from the boxed set.

The silhouette of the Prussian ships are very long, angular and swept back.  In terms of aesthetic design I think they are probably the most 'modern' of the Dystopian fleets.

The Cruisers

You can see the Tesla coils at the aft of the Cruisers

A Prussian Battleship.

Again, Tesla coils along the Battleship's amidships.

A pair of Heavy Bombers. I like how ungainly they look.

 Two groups of Fighters with slightly different markings to help differentiate squadrons.

Next will be the American Fleet. I'm thinking that in Curt's dystopian version of the 1870's the Confederates triumphed in the Civil War (which just seems natural) so I'll paint their fleet accordingly...

Here you can see the  Battleship sporting a couple 'plug-in' generators.

2nd Sci-fi 15mm army complete

It's taken longer than it should have, but the adjustment to shift work has taken its toll on painting.
Below is my second army for 15mm. I'm going to play it as a fast, but fragile force in order to capture the spirit of a group of rebels without a cause (it seems the narrative for many of our games lacks a real focus for why everyone is fighting in the first place).

Work to begin shortly on army 3.

British 'Dystopian Wars' Fleet

As I mentioned in a previous post I decided to paint my British 'Dystopian Wars' stuff with a variant of the 'Dazzle' paint scheme first used by the British in the later part of WWI.

'Dazzle' paint was first developed in 1917 by British maritime artist Norman Wilkinson (who, not surprisingly, was an admirer of the cubist school of art).  Technically speaking 'Dazzle' is not a camouflage, that is it is not a pattern designed to hide, but instead was created to disrupt an observer's perception of the silhouette, size and heading of the 'dazzled' subject. From what I understand it was primarily developed to fool torpedo range-finding optics and surface rangefinders. It was really never proven how effective dazzle painting was but it often boosted ships' morale, as the crews believed it gave them an edge in combat. There are several military's organizations throughout the world today which still use the paint scheme for their vehicles/ships. In civilian terms dazzle paint has been quite popular for several applications (fashion, radar speed trap boxes, etc.) - I know when I worked at Ford in Detroit the vehicle designers would often paint their super-secret concept cars in a dazzle paint scheme in an attempt to foil any outside onlookers/photographers.

A squadron of Frigates (3 of 10).

A trio of Cruisers.

A Battleship.

An Aircraft Carrier.

The Dreadnought.

Check out that nasty ram!

Two Heavy Bombers.

The Fleet steaming out to kick the arse of those Foreign Johnnies. Woof! Woof!

The larger capital-class ships can swap out their turrets to slot-in shield generators which is kinda cool. The big-ass Dreadnought sports a ram on it's bow for those players who like to go in full steam and mix it up (cough, Dave, cough...).
 
Currently I'm working on the Prussian fleet which I hope to have done in a week or so.

'Dystopian Wars' Japanese Bombers and Fighters

Another quick update on the progress of my 'Dystopian Wars' project. Here are a few shots of a couple 'Empire of the Blazing Sun' bombers and some fighters. The game stats for the bombers are pretty mental as on top of the loads of bombs, missiles and gun turrets, each of these bad boys also carry a contingent of jet-pack samurai for boarding actions. We just had a game where this pair rolled-in over a Brit carrier, bombed the hell out of it and then launched several 'sticks' of Kurosawa/Rocket-Robin-Hood-inspired boarders that had to survive the carrier's ack ack in order to land on the ship and conduct their raid. It was pretty insane but loads of laughs.

Like my 'Wings of War' stuff, I decided to build magnetic gimbal ball mounts for the bombers to allow more dynamic posing of the models while they are on their flight stands.

Below is an example of the fighter stands - not surprisingly called 'Tiny Fliers' in the game. These come as one-piece resin 'tokens' which are really easy to paint-up.

As promised before I do have a bunch of stuff from the British fleet done-up so I'll try to post another update on those in the next little while.