The Few

“Never in the field of wargames blogging, has a post read by so many, owed so much, to so few minutes painting...”

Another of my ‘quick wins’ today, as I strive to clear my painting queue of traffic.

I’m not entirely sure why I hadn’t finished these before as both models needed very little work to complete.

Winston Churchill was a free miniature I got with the Operation Sea Lion campaign book, and there is actually a scenario that features him in there.

Even when games don’t feature ‘Winnie’, he’ll serve well in my VBCW royalists and LDV units in the Sea Lion games. The only issue is that smg’s, like his Thompson, aren’t easy to slip into LDV lists, as they tended to be issued to front line units.

This little contraption is something I threw together for my VBCW force several years back, using two unarmed schoolboys from Woodbine Designs.

The idea is that it’s an improvised mortar using some guttering nailed to a barrel. I probably still need to add the actual projectile, but that’s not a problem big enough to keep it on my table.

In game terms, the closest unit I can find for this is a Spigott Mortar or Blacker Bombard in the Home Guard list from Campaign Sea Lion, although it’s not got the ‘Dangerous’ rule, it is a mortar that is ‘Tricky to Aim’ and has an inexperienced crew, which seems appropriate. It does need a third crewman, but for that I’ll use the teacher model as the Science Master overseeing the boys’ experiment.

Small Victories

I’m currently trying to get on top of a miniature backlog that has grown somewhat over the past six months, and so getting some small victories and easy wins seems the order of the day.

And victories don’t come much smaller than these guys...

They are Mousers, the robotic servitors of Baxter Stockman in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and they are a custom sculpt that I believe might have been a limited run. I was lucky enough to hear about them at the right time.

In terms of painting, they were incredibly simple and the bases actually took more work, which wasn’t much.

In terms of 7TV, the Mousers serve as a good fillets for my Foot Clan, instead of random scientists and bystanders, as they are economical with plot points (they get a free move if they don’t activate), and surprisingly fast (they can get to almost anywhere on the board as a special action), which makes them good as objective grabbers or an ambusing force.

Although these particular models are probably not still available, Greebo Miniatures do a not-Mouser in their not-Turtles range, and Heroclix have mousers in varying numbers which would be perfectly acceptable. However, neither of these are massively cheap options for large numbers of Mousers as Greebo have prices to match the quality of their range, and the Heroclix Mousers are rare, which adds to the cost. Nevertheless, if you only want a couple, then either will serve well.

When Hogs May Fly...

Dropzone Commander.

Yes.

Dropzone Commander.

I bet you thought I’d never get back to this, it’s been ages. Reports and painting have been as rare as the proverbial flying pigs.

And to celebrate, I’ve painted a flying pig!

It’s actually a Hellhog, and finally adds some much needed air support for my beleaguered Resistance. Also, given that I was playing Pete, it would finally give me a chance to strike at his Kodiak command unit, Ferrum Drone Carrier and Longbow artillery, that for too long have rained death from afar upon my tanks, destroying them almost the instant they touched the table.

My forces were ready for action. This would be my first 1500 point game (hence the need to paint an extra unit) and saw my entire army in action. I was finally ready to turn the tables on Pete’s UCM.

And then he turned up with a PHR army he’s been painting in secret!

What’s more, the random scenario was Bunker Assault, which is about taking and holding focal points at the end of the game, a task the sturdy, but slow, PHR are well suited to. My Resistance are better at the objective finding and stealing missions due to their flexibility and speed.

However, as this was a new army for Pete, he was limited in what he could use, and only had one AA unit, which in theory meant that once I’d destroyed those two walkers, my aircraft heavy force, and especially the Hellhog, could strike with impunity at his vulnerable ground troops.

Four turns later, the damned AA walkers were still there, and when the Hellhog did arrive, I did my attack run straight at them, and unleashed the terrifyingly named Satan Chaingun at them, hitting all eight times! Thanks to the focus rules I was able to combine these hits into two energy 12 blasts that would destroy the unit once and for all.

Pete uttered the immortal words, “just don’t roll a double one.”

The curse of the new model struck again!

The AA walkers turned around and ignominiously blasted the Hellhog out of the sky.

However, this allowed my remaining Cyclone and three Lifthawks free reign and they swooped in to finally remove the AA threat.

Meanwhile, my infantry were doing a stirling job, with the Marine Force recon, whose Raven had been shot down on turn two, holding on to the central building in the face of waves of PHR infantry. This building was fully secured by my command Alexander managing to withstand two rounds of shooting from the Hades heavy walker.

My Resistance Fighters also expelled the PHR from another building and my Free Riders weathered fire from Pete’s Valkyries to ensure I had more points in and around four of the five buildings, securing me a 12-6 victory.

The game was good fun (as always, I seem to forget how much I like this game) and there were swings of luck on both sides. I’ve still got a few more units to paint, and so I hope to play a bit more in the near future.

In other ‘rare as flying pigs news,’ I have finally, after thirty years, managed to arrange for a 6’x4’ table in my own house.

This should mean I might be able to get some more big battles played, and see the the more frequent return of some old favourites such as: Flames of War, Kings of War and WAB (although I’d probably use KoW Historical now), along with some newer games I’ve been building up to like Sharpe Practice.

Good times ahead!

He-Month 2: Masters of the Juniverse

Summer’s on its way and in the time since the last He-Month, I’ve managed to build up a small backlog of Masters of the Universe related miniatures, enough that it’s time for another He-Month (see the benefit of the name now, it’s a moveable feast).

Therefore the plan is that Leon (Pulp Citizen, Eclectic Gentleman Gamer) and I will engage in another month long push to add to our collections. This time, however, we’re looking for others to join in.

We know it’s a bit of a niche interest, but if you are interested in joining in, the rules are as follows:

• You need to paint or build a single miniature or terrain piece with a link to Masters of the Universe each week if He-Month.
• Your finished work needs to be posted either on your blog, the MotU Gaming Facebook group it similar social media platform by the end of each Sunday of the month.
• Encourage and support others partaking in He-Month.

And that’s it. And don’t worry if you can’t do every week, just join in anyway.

I’ll aim to do a summary blog post showing off everyone’s work each week.

If you’re interested, please comment below with the address of where you’ll be posting your progress, and I’ll put a list together.

I’m fully aware that this could end up just being me and Leon again, and frankly, that’s not going to stop us.

The Odd Couple

Two more Descent characters completed. This time it’s Tomble Burrowell the Halfling (possibly Gnome) Thief, and Syndrael the Elven Knight.

Tomble was a fun little model to paint. Most of the colours I used on him are sort of the same browny/red palette, which meant that all I needed to do was basecoat, wash and pick out details. Fortunately, he’s also well defined enough that his face has plenty of character too.

However, Syndrael is probably my least favourite Descent model so far. The gold armour has turned out okay (all gold never works out that well), but there are sculpting issues that let the model down. The sword is a bit of a stubby mess, the cloak is flat and ugly, and the facial features are too shallow for me to be able to pick out details. Also, there are several ugly mould lines that, despite my attempts to tidy them, still look a bit of a mess.

However, she’s okay and hasn’t turned out as a mess. I’m sorry of regretting using blue for her robes too, as the card art is bluey-green and this colour is probably too similar to two of the other characters.

Still, lessons learned...

The Quick and the Dead

Why ‘the quick and the dead’ you ask?

Quick because I’ve been doing these Descent models with alarmingly slapdash haste. 

Dead because, well, y’know...zombies!

Another batch of Descent models completed in time for our first outing into the world of Terrinoth, and they include my first two heroes.

First up, the zombies...

Nothing really to write home about here. My standard approach to zombie flesh, pale brown rotting garments, a quick wash, done.

I didn’t want to spend too long on these models as they’re frankly not very exciting. Single pose models always bore me somewhat, and so speed was the order of the day.

I did take the time to splatter the master zombie in gore to mark him out clearly though.

The first hero is Widow Tahra, a Half-Orc Necromancer/Witch. Yes, I agree, that does sound more like a villain.

The hero models in Descent are small, somewhere between 20mm and 25mm, and true scale. This, along with moulded bases, swirling cloaks and fairly shallow details does make painting a bit tricky for somebody who is overly reliant on washes and dry-brushes.

However, I’m quite pleased with how the Widow has turned out. I’ve tried to keep things simple, and it seems to have worked.

Widow Tahra will definitely be hitting the table in our inaugural campaign, as Matt requested to use her, and so being a lovely chap, I painted her first.

The second hero completed is Jain Fairwood, a Human Archer (much more heroic). No, I’m not going for a purple theme for my heroes, it just so happens that. The card art for these two, which I’m using as a guide, has them both in purple robes.

I’m quite pleased with Jain’s face. Not because it’s brilliant, but because it’s okay despite the model having very shallow features.

It’s not clear whether Jain will be joining the adventuring party, as Pete, to help speed things up, has painted his own character (he’s also bought the game to run with another group), and Wes hasn’t decided who he want to be. He’ll essentially get to choose from the models Pete and I have managed to paint before Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to add a couple more options before the game...stay tuned...