Man Flu

It's ******** freezing, I'm knackered and coming down with some sort of lurgy, so it's game over for this evening. I was hoping to get to the club tonight for a game of Hail Caesar but I'm off to bed once the kids are tucked up for the night. I'm hoping to knock the lurgy on the head with a good night's sleep but it's been going round work, so it may be a bit longer..

Anyway, on a slightly more positive note, I have had some ideas for two rival War of the Roses retinues for  the 15mm Lion Rampant project. I was thinking of doing two semi-fictional forces but am now also considering a 1480's historical set up, featuring the Lancastrian loyalist Sir Richard Edgecombe and his 'brutal' Yorkist rival, Sir Henry Trenoweth of Bodrugan.

...more of that, very Cornish story later on, once I feel a bit normal and have had time to put it all together.

10mm Aliens USCM bases

I had a crack at the drybrushing on the USCM bases this evening, using a slighty different approach to the one that I used in the alien bases. I haven't applied a wash yet but will probably do so before I add the highlights, as the overall effect at this stage is a bit bland.

The large rectangular bases are for the Micro Machines M577 APC models, which also need some attention before they're ready for painting. I'm off to the club tomorrow, so it will have to wait until mid-week before I get to tackle the two squads of USCM troopers and their armoured transportation.

X-Wing Extras

It was back to work today, which was fairly unpleasant, so I was pleased to find a package in my pigeon hole containing a couple of X-Wing models that I ordered over the Xmas holidays. I've added a second TIE Interceptor to go with the French one I bought in Quimper, so now have the pilot cards and upgrades in two languages. I also have a Y-Wing for my X-Wings to escort on attack missions and just because it's really cool!

Aliens Spaceplane Dropship

One thing that's obviously missing from my 10mm Aliens mini-project is a 1/144th scale UD-4L Cheyenne dropship, which exists as a very expensive out of production model that's not readily available and far too pricey for my budget:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/ColonialMarineDropShip-CataloguePage.htm

So, to fill the gap, I've kit bashed a  Revell 1/144th scale YF-23A prototype fighter kit that I had in the loft, to create a Weyland Yutani Corporation executive shuttle-type spaceplane dropship thing.

This involved scratchbuiling some landing gear using the spare sidewinder missiles from the kit with some plastic rod and card for the supports and skids, then adding an access ramp using the missile bay kit doors and the original oleo legs from the undercarriage. I left off the tailplanes as they made it look too much like a fighter aircraft rather than a spaceplane-style dropship but had to leave the canopy as it was. I think it'll look pretty neat painted up and will also be useful as a scenario objective.

While up in the loft, I found an old EM4 plastic mech model minus any arms, so I had a go at bashing it into a power loader using some Lego robot arms that I pinched from the kids toy box. It's far too big for the version in the film, so I'll use it as an alternative heavy duty lifter which may just get used as scenic decoration. At least it didn't cost very much to put together, which is very much in keeping with the rest of the project!

10mm Alien Nest

This is a bit better. I did some high-lighting on the eggs after washing them in Vallejo Strong Tone, before adding some detaling to the open eggs and the face huggers. I'm tempted to add some vegetation of some sort to break up the grey effect but that wouldn't fit with the wasteland environment, so I'll just leave it as it is. I may well add some individual bases or eggs and egg clusters, as I think they add some angles for scenarios but it's onto the USCM squads and M577 APC's next.

10mm Alien Swarm

The Aliens Attack!

Warriors

Juveniles

The Queen

The Nest

I hoped to get these done yesterday but my dad made an unexpected visit, so there was no time for painting. I did a rush job on them today instead, with a quick overwash of Vallejo Shiny Black followed by some washing and drybrushing on the bases. The nest base isn't really finished and looks a bit rubbish, so I'll probably tinker with the it later on once the basecoat has dried, adding some highlights and details if I can be bothered!

2015 Projects

Here's the plan for 2015.

I will be concentrating on 15mm skirmish level games - from section to platoon in modern terms - with a focus on everything fitting on a 3'x3' or 2' x 4' playing area. This will allow me to scratchbuild some bespoke terrain features and boards for the various games that I'll be playing. The first of these will be Lion Rampant in 15mm, with the Wars of the Roses figures from Peter Pig, although I may well do another period as well, perhaps even Sengoku era Japan or Early Medieval.

The second 15mm skirmish project will be near future / sci-fi in focus, using the GZG, Brigade Models and Antenociti's Workshop stuff that I've collected together, although 15mm Imperial Commander using the old Laserburn range might also be an second option. This will use Gruntz or similar as a ruleset but I'm open to trying out whatever system gives a good platoon level game without too much complication. I'm looking forward to this as it will allow me to do some 'imagi-nations' style painting.

I'll also be dabbling in other things as usual, including more Bag The Hun aircraft and some more naval stuff of some description. The coastal forces need some extras not to mention some merchant ships, while the Victory at Sea French could do with some British or Italian opposition. These are two of the many other naval projects that I'd like to explore further including the Steam and Sail Ironclads and the Peter Pig Pirate ships. I enjoyed the naval projects last year so it would be a shame not to take them further.

In terms of games, I'll be aiming to get to the club more often than last year, which may be a bit of a challenge but shouldn't be impossible once a month or so. In the interim, I'll try to get some time in for games at home, with a focus on boardgames rather the miniatures. I'm keen to get my head around X-Wing for a start, so will definately be playing some solo games at weekends and in the evenings. I've neglected my boardgames for far too long and really need to get back into playing them more often.

Finally, my New Years Resolution will be to finish the 28mm Japanese for the Chain of Command project. This will be my summer holiday painting project for 2015, although I may have a crack at it over the Easter break, if thungs go according to plan this term and I don't have loads of school work to do.The figures and vehicles are ready to paint and I will probably add a few extra bits to round things out, so that I will be able to actually get a game or two under my belt by the Autumn.

Aliens USCM Technical Manual

In my family, being half French and half English, we have two versions of Christmas, one on the 25th December in Brittany and one on the 1st January in Hampshire. This is great for the kids, as they get to open two sets of presents and great for us, as we don't have to lug my side of the family's gifts over to the other side of the English Channel.

This year, the UK Father Xmas brought me a copy of the very old but very useful Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual, which he (or she?) spotted in the Waterstones sale and thought might be something I'd like for the bookshelf. I thought this was out of print years ago, so I was very pleasantly surprised to get a copy as one of my second Xmas presents.

This led me to dig out my 10mm Pendraken aliens and colonial marines that I based up last year, with an intial drybrush on the bases to see what they looked like in something other than basecoat black. I screwed up the base texturing on these so that every stroke of the brush dislodged little bits of grit and exposed shiny metal, with some serious washing and shading still needed to fill inthe resulting gaps.

The aliens will get a topcoat of Vallejo Shiny Black once I've sorted the bases out. After that, I'll have a crack at the bases on the colonial  marines before starting on the figures themselves. I'm planning to get the aliens finished tomorrow so that I can spend some time on the humans before the end of the weekend. I hope they turn out to be a good start to 2015!.

Happy New Year

2014...where did that go?

It's time for the annual review of the year, which has very much been a bit of a downhill slide after a promising start. I set out this year to focus on World War Two things, with the scope to try out some other sidelines along the way. In the end I have completed two projects to the point at which they are playable, the first being the Victory at Sea French fleet and the second the RN and Kriegsmarine Action Stations coastal forces. However, it took me all year to get the Chain of Command platoon assembled, based and undercoated but at least I got that far, leaving the painting for a summer holiday project in 2015.

Although the 28mm WW2 Japanese didn't get painted, I did put together an Airfix-style jungle outpost using the excellent Sarissa Precision mdf kits, which will be great when I actually get round to a game of Chain of Command. The kits were easy to build and look great, so I'll be making some more mdf flat packs as soon as I can find some useful ones in 15mm. I also scratchbuilt a crashed missile objective marker for AK47 and assembled a Lost World temple thing for the club participation game, although the pirate ship that I started on didn't get past the hull stage.

Other half completed things included the 10mm Aliens project, the 1/2400 scale Second Schleswig War flotilla for Iron and Fire and the 28mm Ronin project, that I started but then hesitated with, due to the fiddly painting and second thoughts about the old Citadel figures that I decided to use. It's definately one that I'll come back to though, perhaps with some alternative figures from the Perry Miniatures range, as I have a shedload of mdf buildings to put together! On the plus side, the AK47 superpower backed army rumbled toward completion including lots of new APC's, softskins, AFV's and even a Hind helicopter gunship.

AK47 continued to be my game of choice in 2014, with three cracking games using the 'classic' rules ending up in two victories and one ignominious thrashing. I also enjoyed some new games at the club including a try out of Judge Dredd and Victory at Sea, both of which were good fun but a little clunky as I was learning the rules in the process. I was on more familiar ground and a less precipitous learning curve with my late war US infantry platoon in Bolt Action, the RFC dogfighting through Knights of the Sky and the Texan Oil expedition getting ambushed in the Back of Beyond, all of which added to the gameplay. My scratchbuilt armoured train also made it onto the cover of this!

That's my train that is...

A very special mention has to go out to the long suffering but loyal Bag The Hun playtesters at the club, who helped me to fine-tune a couple of scenarios this year, one a convoy strike in the Med and the other a low level fighter interception over the Russian Front. The latter scenario, 'Catch the Pigeon', ended up as a published scenario in the Toofatlardies Xmas Special, along with a trio of Malta scenarios aka 'Hurricanes over Hal Far' in the Summer Special. The Westland Whirlwind themed 'Rhubarbs and Roadsteads' project is one that I've been working on over the year, so some new linked scenarios are definately on the cards.

One thing I won't be tackling is anything in 28mm for the immediate future, aside from the Chain of Command Japanese, after struggling through the SAGA Normans over the summer holidays. This was fun at the time but, after trying out the basecoat and dip approach, I won't be trying it again. The four point warband looks OK from a distance but it's not up to scratch on closer inspection, so perhaps the time and effort involved in proper, fiddly 28mm painting is not really affordable. I may do half a dozen figures at some point but 15mm is much more likely to fit in with my workload next year.

So, on reflection 2014 wasn't a complete washout even if it fizzled a bit toward the end. To use a slightly cheesy football analogy, it was definately a game of two halves, with a good start but a lacklustre finish. I have worked through some of the issues that I've come up against this year (I'm sounding like some sort of new age lifestyle guru now?), so have some cunning plans for 2015 that will mean a return to my previous levels of output and enthusiasm over the next twleve months. I hope you have had a great New Year and best wishes for all your projects in 2015!