A Tale of One Gamer - Part Nine

Whew! This the last post of 2012 and the last post in my A Tale of One Gamer series.

The last pic, for those unfamiliar with Tyranids is a Tyrannofex and the thing is bigger than a tank! Here is the final Tyranid list of units:

HQ
Hive Tyrant
Tyrant Guard Brood (2)
Tyranid Prime

Troops
Tyranid Brood (3)
Genestealer Brood w/Broodlord (10)
Termagant Brood (18)
Hormagant Brood (16)
Hormagant Brood (16)

Elites
Lictor Brood (2)
Zoanthrope Brood (2)

Fast Attack
Ravener Brood (3)
Spore Mine Cluster (4)
Spore Mine Cluster (4)

Heavy Support
Carnifex Brood (2)
Tyrannofex

I far exceeded my goal as my army is up to 86 models and 2300 points (basically the cost of the Tyrannofex). While I am finished with the A Tale of One Gamer series, I have decided to push this army on to 3000 points as I have time. I still want to add a Trygon (or two - I easily have enough units to build a two force structure army) and a second unit of Tyranids. I also like to max out each branch selection so I need another Fast Attack (the second spore mine unit doesn't really count as I would probably field a single unit of six) and another Elite choice - probably a Gargoyle Brood and Hive Guard Brood respectively.

One of the goals of this project was to concentrate on models I already owned. I bought the Tyrant Guard Brood, Lictor Brood, Zoanthrope Brood, and Tyrannofex - everything else came from my storage closet!

This has been a lot of fun. I don't know if I'll do another series like this next year, but I definitely plan to follow the 500 points/month model the next time I build a new 40k army. The pace was quite leisurely for me and left me time to work on other projects. Splitting between two armies was a great way to avoid burnout as well as each unit felt fresh when I sat down to paint!

The next thing I want to do with these armies (besides play some games) is set up my photo equipment and get some action shots with terrain - next year!

Merry Christmas

Late in the day, but things have been crazy around my house today! I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope Santa brought everyone some great hobby related loot! I made out great with a copy of Forge World's Model Masterclass (vol 1), a Space Marine Drop Pod, and a box set of the Citadel Edge Paint Set.

There is also a couple of boxes on their way from Scotland with more shiny new Warfare Miniatures!

Merry Christmas!

Wargamer's ADD

Seriously - I have the attention span of a four year old. I sat down at my painting desk and had no room to work. It was covered with various models, projects, paint pots, tools, and notebooks. I resolved to the clean the place up and get a fresh start for 2013 and am absolutely flabbergasted by the sheer number of manufacturers and periods represented.

Warfare Miniatures
I have a battalion of foot destined to be Nassau-Saarbruken-Ottweiler, half of which are painted - I'm going to make an effort to finish this unit before the end of the year. In addition there are four pikemen to add to Hamner's regiment, four or five artillery crewmen, a dozen grenadiers I'm going to paint as a unit of converged Dutch, several mounted officers, an aide on foot, and King William III. All of these have stayed on the table after the clean up...

Games Workshop
Mostly left over models and bits from my A Tale of One Gamer series, I have a pair of painted Zoanthropes (see them at the end of the month when the series wraps up), two tyranids still on the sprues, a half assembled Trygon, and various loose bits including three Forge World Spore Chimneys (out of production). There is also a squad of Space Marine Terminators assembled for my Red Scorpions. More 40k models include a Space Marine painted to test a color scheme for a new army I plan to build next year, an Imperial Pilot from the old Battle for Macragge set, and a rare mounted Commisar for the Death Korps of Krieg.

For Warhammer Fantasy I have a Bretonnian warband for Mordheim to fight my Empire warband, three River Trolls (no idea why other than the models are really cool and I wanted to paint them), and the Empire General on a griffon that I featured on this blog almost two years (I think he's been on the desk since that post). Finally there is a Empire Witch Hunter I bought to check out the finecast line when it was brand new (pricy, but very nice, BTW).

I also have 36 goblins and the goblin scribe from the Escape from Goblin Town set based on the new Hobbit movie.

Wargames Foundry
Two battalions of WSS models painted as French that I intend to put up for sale to get them off of the desk!

Eureka
I have an early French artillery crew than I plan to paint as Spanish to add another gun to my battery.

Claymore Castings
I really intend on building some small forces with these models, but so far I've only managed to paint four. Besides these four, I have another twenty of these excellent models crowded around them.

Renegade Miniatures
There are four ECW models painted as Jamestown militia for a skirmish project I am toying with.

Artizan Miniatures
I have a WW2 German mortar team and a single model carrying a panzerfaust to finish off a force for my Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery project.

Otherworld Miniatures
There is a giant scorpion for the fantasy force for the game above, plus a handful of goblins and kobolds and an expedition mule laden with adventuring supplies.

Reaper Miniatures
A massive Fire Giant towers over a handful of NPC types.

Ral Partha
A company of twelve Battletech mechs, long out of production. Half of them  are painted and the other half are undercoated. I have dozens of these old models. My friends want to set up a campaign so hopefully next year I'll get some more of these painted.

Whew... much of this has been packed away and I now have room to work again!

Fighting at Old Bridge

Just a couple of quick shots left over from a series of pics I took for Wargames Illustrated. I always take more than they need so I thought I wouldn't let them go to waste!

Looking forward to continuing to add to this collection. Next year will see the addition of lots of new units!

Painting Competition 2013

It's time for another painting competition! So, now it is time to go for it again or, enter for the first time if you didn't get a chance the first time around.

The entry conditions are very simple:

1. Entry is free!
2. All figures must be Warfare minis
3. All models must be painted by yourself!
4. You can enter as many times as you like in each or all categories

The competition will run till the end of February 2013.

There are 3 categories:

1. Infantry unit of 16 or more models
2. Cavalry unit of 6 or more models
3. Artillery piece or command vignette or other vignette of 4 or more models.

There will be 1st & 2nd prizes in all categories AND there will be an overall winner 'Best of Competition'.

Prizes will be drawn from Warfare Miniatures, Wordtwister Publications and Quindia Studios flag products with details to follow.

Entries should be uploaded to the Fighting Talk Forum.

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Eight

November sees the completion of my Red Scorpions army at 2000 points!

Of course, I've already shown the Land Raider. The remaining additions gave some much needed speed to my force. The bike squad and attack bike will be fielded as one unit and the Assault Squad will normally support the bikes or the Vanguard Veteran squad.

So the final tally...

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Space Marine Command Squad
Space Marine Librarian

Troops
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Tactical Squad (10)
Space Marine Squad Squad (8)

Elite
Space Marine Terminator Squad (5)
Dreadnought

Fast Attack
Space Marine Bike Squad (3 + Attack Bike)
Space Marine Assault Squad (5)
Vanguard Veterans (5)

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader

Basically painted over the course of four months! I discovered that by alternating between the Space Marines and Tyranids, it was easier to keep the drive going and not burn out slapping the same colors on models day after day. It was also easy to paint 500-points a month and left me time to work on other projects.

When I started this project, part of the goal was to paint things I had tucked away in my game room. The only thing I purchased for the Red Scorpion army were the Assault Marine box and the Land Raider doors from Forge World. After all this, I STILL have enough unpainted kits to add another 1000 points easy, but I am planning on starting ANOTHER Space Marine army for 2013 that I've wanted to do for a very long time...

Anyway, this was a fun experiment - next month will see the completion of my 2000 point Tyranid army!

Cuirassiers

Warfare Miniatures will soon be offering 132 variants on Cuirassiers for the period 1670 - 1721. This is achieved by having 22 sets of 3 unique sculpts available on both Standing or Galloping horse variants. The range covers English, Irish, Dutch, French, German, Danish, Bavarian, Austrian Imperial Circle, early Swedish, Saxon, Spanish and a wide variety of smaller states from the Scanian Wars through Sedgemoor, Ireland, Flanders 1689-1697, Rhineland, Italy, Eastern Wars, Great Northern War, WSS in Flanders, Spain and Germany.

English helmets, Continental Helmets, Hats, Tricornes, Bareheads with wigs and without, bandaged too. Cuirasses over coats under coats and front plate only. Musicians with arm variants playing and resting. Lances for standards with attachable finials and cords, arm variants with pistols cocked, firing, swords at rest, up right and extended, officers arms waving hats or tricornes.

Lots of photos here...

Meh

Two billion dollars and 18 months of campaigning and the country ends up with essentially the same situation in Washington. Poor (or no) leadership on both sides. A bitterly divided government that won't be able to pursue any meaningful agenda for the future. Normally I hope for gridlock in D.C. because I think the less they accomplish, the better off we are. There are serious problems facing the country and I see few ideas offered to fix things and even less chance of both sides coming together even make the attempt.

Apologies for the rant - more painted models coming up!

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Seven

Last month I managed to bring my Tyranid force up to 1500 points...

This gives me one HQ, five Troops(!), one Elite (or two if I split up the Lictors), and one Heavy Support (a pair of Carnifex). Now for the fun part - because I already have so many Troop choices, getting to 2000 points in December will be easy with the addition of one of tank-sized monsters and one or two small units. I have no idea how effective this army will be on the table, but that is really secondary for now. When I get the chance to run some games, I can rework the list while I fill in extra units toward 3000 points!

Red Scorpions Land Raider

Ok - I was supposed to be painting Tyranids for my 'A Tale of One Gamer' this month and I have made progress on that front (pics next week). However, I have also been working on a Space Marine Land Raider Crusader for my Red Scorpions army and rather than wait for next month I wanted to feature the tank in a post of it's own.

I am extremely pleased with the results. The skull and wings emblem on the upper hull was painted freehand which was something I've never really attempted. I took a photo of the top of the model, imported the image into CorelDraw, and designed the graphic to size. I printed this to use as a reference. After painting the hull grey, I used a white colored pencil to sketch my design on the hull and then carefully blocked in the shapes. When I was satisfied with the emblem, I highlighted in the same manner as the rest of the tank.

The side and front hatches are from Forge World. I painted the crew model as a Techmarine rather than a standard trooper to break up the monotony of grey and gold. Right now the model is in pristine condition, right from the manufactorum, but I plan on adding battle damage and weathering.

Tyranids coming next week...

For Sale

SOLD

This is the first in a series of auctions designed to clear out some space in my game room. The first listing is my Crimson Fist Space Marine army, offered as separate auctions. Some pics below...

There will be some historical stuff up for sale soon so keep an eye out!

Wolseley’s Enniskillen Regiment

Here is the second squadron of Wolseley's Horse Regiment...

The ensign is a conversion of one of the troopers. I cut off the sword from his right hand and drilled it for the flag staff. Then I used some modeling putty to re-sculpt part of the hand where I trimmed away the hilt guard and add a sash and feather. The bow on the hip is probably anachronistic but there are some sketches by Mark Allen that show officers with sashes worn in this manner and I thought it looked cool! The pic on the left is at a crude stage but somehow I neglected to take another photo of the finished sculpt... oh, well. I am just starting to attempt more ambitious conversions and am even trying my hand at complete sculpts. I will of course post my efforts...

The squadrons look great ranked up, but my quick and easy photo set-up doesn't allow me to fit both squadrons in the shot! I'll have to arrange some 'action' shots on terrain sometime soon, but that requires a more complex arrangement with studio lighting, etc. and I wanted to get these guys on the blog.

On the painting table next are the Nassau-Saarbrucken-Ottweiler battalion, a unit of converged Dutch grenadiers, Schomberg's Huguenot Horse regiment, and King Billy Himself. After that three Huguenot foot battalions, some artillery, and a few brigade officers and my Williamite army will be finished (for now).

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Six

This month's 40k painting has brought me to 1500-points...

The addition of the Space Marine Librarian gives me psychic support that my force has been lacking so far and it's never bad to have an extra character. The Command Squad adds extra support for my Space Marine Captain and helps keep from being so easily targeted. Finally, I like to field lots of Troops in my army for those all important objective grabs so I painted up a second Tactical Squad. My army is up to 46 models which is very respectable for Space Marines!

I've decided to target my armies for 1850-points for now which seems to be a fairly popular tournament point total... not that I'll be taking part in such events, but the logic behind the total is to allow a good variety of stuff while still finishing battles in a reasonable amount of time, which suits me perfectly. For November expect to see my Red Scorpions gain reinforcements in the form of a couple of Heavy Support choices! Back to Tyranids for October...

Cuirassiers

My partner, Barry Hilton, has gone crackers! The next wave of horse is on the way from Warfare Miniatures and 'wave' barely captures what's coming. There are nearly 60 new cuirassiers that will be available soon. You will be able to order armored troopers with full cuirass or breast plates only, both over and under their coats. There are also models with English or German style helmets, hats, tricorns, or bareheaded. Most have the option to be modeled with sword or pistol. Finally there are a variety of officers, standard bearers, and musicians. If that's not enough, all of these models may be ordered on standing horses or galloping horses!

You can lots more samples in the LoA Gallery and they will soon be available in the shop!

The Hobbit

I discovered The Hobbit and LotR before RPGs and wargaming...  The Lord of the Rings films are some of my favorite movies of all time and I am really looking forward to the Hobbit!

Brandenburg

Just added the finishing touches on my next battalion - a German regiment in Dutch service raised and command by William III's cousin, Prince Albrecht of Brandenburg.

The model on the left is another conversion. The original model came from the artillery crew packs and had a spyglass in his left hand. I removed the glass and added the sword. I also added the eye patch with a tiny blob of green stuff to lend a more sinister air to this officer.

Next up Nassau-Saarbrucker-Ottweiler... very similar to the above unit, but with darker grey coats and red facings. The officers will again be in blue and red.

Wolseley’s Enniskillen Regiment

Finally finished my first squadron of horse! These are some of the best Warfare models so far.

The second squadron is underway...

Dutch Garde te Voet (Blue Guard)

Here is my second battalion of the Garde te Voet. Although there were three battalions at the Battle of the Boyne, I think I'm only going to paint two for my collection (for now).

I now have a very concrete plan for my Williamite collection...

DUTCH
Garde te Voet (2 battalions)
Brandenburg
Nassau-Saarbrucken-Ottweiler
converged grenadiers

ENGLISH/IRISH
Hanmer
Wolseley's Horse (2 squadrons)

HUGUENOT
De la Meloniere
Caillemotte
Cambon
Schomberg's Horse (2 squadrons)

DANISH
Garden til Fods
Zealand
Jutland
Funen
Donop's Horse (1 squadron)
Juel's Horse (1 squadron)

ARTILLERY
4 battalion guns
2 field guns

This will give me most of the front line foot units at the Boyne and the most often mentioned units of horse from accounts I've read - a very respectable force of twelve battalions of foot and six squadrons of horse. Note that the number of squadrons for horse is Beneath the Lily Banner units, not historical organization. Those units listed as one squadron end up with 4-8 models (which will be 6 on the game table) when historical strengths are rendered at 1:35. Those with 9 models or more were granted two squadron status.

The Brandenburg battalion is up next. I am really hoping to have the Williamites finished by the end of the year so I can start on the army of King James II!

Wolseley’s Enniskillen Regiment 03

The first squadron awaiting the final touches (finishing the base and adding the flag)...

The ensign would probably have had a blue coat, but the unit was beginning to look a bit too colorful! I wanted to keep the red coats dominate. You can see the second squadron assembled in the background (and my second battalion of Dutch Guard, also only lacking finished bases and flags).

Final pics next weekend - I'll have some progress shots of the second regiment of Wolseley's Horse and the start of the Brandenburg regiment of foot. 

Wolseley’s Enniskillen Regiment 02

Further progress on my first Warfare horse unit...

Will have the officers done in a day or two. According to C.A. Sapherson, officers wore blue coats so this will be a very a colorful unit!

Partizan 2 2012

Barry and the lads put on a demo at Partizan 2 last weekend with nearly 700 Warfare Miniatures on the table!

Above is one my favorite units so far (painted and photographed by Barry Hilton), Creagh's Jacobite Foot. There are lots of photos of the action at Partizan 2 and more pics of the new cavalry in the LoA gallery (both sporting lots of my flags)!

More of my efforts coming soon...

Wolseley’s Enniskillen Regiment 01

Progress for today's painting...

I'm going to prime the rest of the squadron (four more models) tonight so I can paint a few more tomorrow (hopefully)!

The chunky stands are  5/8" foamcore to make handling them a little easier.

Rainy Day Primer

Have I mentioned how much I loathe undercoating models with a brush? I can paint an infantry model, highlights and all, in the time it takes me to paint ten infantry models black. Spray paint takes a little experience to get good results and minimize touch ups, but once you master the process it is a huge time saver. I find myself with little enough time to paint these days and I try to spend that time finishing models!

That said, on Friday I received my first regiments of Warfare Miniatures horse in the mail (watch for a detailed review soon). I wasted no time assembling them, but it was RAINING thins morning. Never mind the impossibility of spray painting in the rain, high humidity often produces poor results as well, so even if it stopped soon I didn't want to spray these models. If I wanted to start painting I was going to have to undercoat a few by hand.

I decided to try one of Citadel's new 'Technical Paints' called Imperial Primer. I still haven't had much time to mess around with much of what I got in the Citadel Paint Bundle, so this was my first time using this. The paint is thinner than 'ordinary' Citadel paints, so there is no need to mix it with water to avoid obscuring the details. It also has a high concentration of pigment and adheres well to metal (unlike thinned down acrylics normally do). When it goes on, the paint looks a little streaky, but it dried to an even coat. The results were indistinguishable from a pair of models I had setting nearby that had been undercoated with Chaos Black spray paint - in fact maybe better as the models painted with spray paint appear satin while the those painted with Imperial Primer are matte.

Anyway, I'm off to paint some cavalry (photos and a review soon). If you undercoat models with black primer by hand, give the Citadel Imperial Primer a try.

A Tale of One Gamer - Part Five

40k Friday - Here are the results of another round of my 'A Tale of One Gamer' project for August!

This brings me around 1000 points and gives me a battlefield legal force. The Hive Tyrant gives me terrifying combat abilities while the Tyrant Guard will help keep this monster on the table. Though they lost a bit of power in 6th edition, Genestealers are still one of the scariest close combat units around and I'm happy to add them to my army. I've pretty much reached the end of what I had on hand (the Tyrant Guard are my first new purchase for this project). I still have a carnifex kit and a handful of gaunts so going forward they will make up the next round of reinforcements. Not sure what I'll add to make up the rest of my next 500 point goal - off to the store!

I'm planning to play the first game of a mini-campaign in September and will post the results when I can.

More Space Marines next month as I try to get them to 1500 points...

Dragoon Flags

Yet more flags for the growing range - this time dragoons from the Boyne/Aughrim campaign...

With this release, that brings me to more than 100 regiments of foot, 35 regiments of horse, and 18 regiments of dragoons! I'll be filling in a few stragglers from the Ireland and Scotland campaigns (I just realized I left out Schomberg's regiment of horse which one of the first on the list for my personal collection), then moving on other theaters!