Hellshrieker

I found this in a bargain bin many years ago and it sedimented into the bottom of the tin and plastics mountain and laid there, forgotten. Found and retrieved now.

It’s a Hellshrieker from Wizards’ Dreamblade pre-painted miniatures range. Originally with a square base but I sawed that off and used one of my 25mm crystal clear Sally 4^th bases instead.

Repainted in different pinks and rotting flesh tones, washed with Citadel Baal Red and lightly drybrushed with Formula P3 Thrall Flesh. Teeth Bone White with Army Painter Strong Tone wash. Finally a coat of gloss varnish.

Icky thing, looks like a mound of intestines. Will probably see action as a Cthulhu monster or maybe in a game of Open Combat.
Sweet dreams...

Dust – Sturmprinz/Prinzluther

The first of my walkers for Dust Warfare. This kit contained enough parts to make two different versions of the vehicle by swapping turrets.

Prinzluther, Troop Panzer Walker VI-C, is armed with a 20mm Flak with a co-axial MG and twin MGs in a turret underneath the main body. It can carry six soldiers.

Sturmprinz, Troop Panzer Walker VI-D, is armed with a twin 30mm anti-aircraft gun and a twin MG underneath. It can carry six soldiers inside and another six as tank riders.

I painted the vehicle in the same paint scheme I’ve used for my German heavy troops to get a coherent look for all my Germans. Also used pigments to dirty it up.

No national markings on this one as the decals I had expected from the Dust Kickstarter was out of stock… They will hopefully show up sometime in the not too distant future so my other vehicles won’t look so naked.

Dust – Schwer-Sturmgrenadiere and Doomsday Clock

These are really gorgeous figures and I picked them up immediately when Fantasy Flight had their sale of Dust minis in November.

First the Jagdgrenadiere armed with a 75mm caseless anti-tank gun and a twin machinegun. Just look at it. It’s such a fantastic set of minis.

Here we have the Laser-Jagdgrenadier and as you might have guessed from the name they are armed with a really big and powerful laser. Once upon a time I worked with a CO2-laser. That was great fun but what a laugh compared to this beast… Another very nicely done mini. The only thing I have against it is the magazine. I’m not sure what it’s for, surely not ammo. Spare rubies...?

They are painted like my other German heavy infantry, the only difference is that I drybrushed these here and there with 863 Gunmetal Grey to get a more worn look.

They are based om 60mm clear bases from Sally 4^th. Slightly smaller than the 65mm of the official bases.

And now for something completely different – The Doomsday clock was adjusted yesterday. It was looking a bit better when the Cold War ended, but now it has been moved two minutes closer to midnight. Presently we’re at 3 minutes to, just a minute better than all-time worst in 1953.

The reason – inaction on climate change and nuclear arms. Nothing new there...

Great news everybody. Congratulations. How about not voting for idiots next election?

Gary Gygax and TSR

I found this really interesting blog post the other day. It’s all about how Gary Gygax lost control over the company TSR and therefore also over his brainchild Dungeons & Dragons.

Follow the link in the post to the full article - ‘The Ambush at Sheridan Springs’.

Dust – Steel Guards Sniper Squad and a game of Brimstone

These are the SSU Steel Guard Sniper Squad, also known as Silent Death. Two snipers armed with 23mm Heavy Rifles and Steel Gloves, these are truly fearsome adversaries.

They are the first of the Kickstarter minis I’ve painted, and they are just fantastic. A pleasure to paint and they look like they could take on the world, or at least some German heavy infantry.

I put some more effort into these, as I think they deserved it.

Paints used:

Armour – Vallejo 894 Camo Olive Green with an Army Painter Dark Tone wash. Heavily drybrushed with 968 Flat Green and drybrushed 863 Gunmetal Grey. Rust painted with 68 Smokey Ink.

Tubes – 306 Dark Rubber

Weapons and springs – 863 Gunmetal Grey with two washes of Dark Tone

Cloth – 924 Russian Uniform WWII with a Strong Tone wash

Leather straps – 876 Brown Sand also washed with Strong Tone.

Missing a piece on the tank behind the body. That and a couple of missing cards from the kickstarter will hopefully arrive in the post shortly.

They are big.

I played my first game of Brimstone with one of my sons this weekend. We played the introductory scenario, using a Marshal and Saloon Girl, misunderstood a lot of the rules, made mistakes and got our behinds whipped, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

I used some of my Black Scorpion minis as substitutes

We only used the minis I have already painted and I feel that the game will be much more fun the more different minis you have, so at the moment I’m assembling all monsters from the other box and waiting eagerly for the rest of the stuff from the Kickstarter.

Great fun! More games will be played shortly.

A give-away from Tor Gaming

Do you fancy £150 worth of minis and rules?

If yes, then you should over to Tor Gaming and their contest that is open until January 22.

The minis you can win seem to be a complete faction from their Relics series, and when I checked them out I found the Vaettir just so cute. They are all very cute, actually.

Check out yourself, and if you go by this link and enter the competition I will get a few extra points. I wouldn’t mind that

My thoughts on murder

We must never forget that some people think their ideas are so special that they have the right to murder to uphold those ideas. 
No one has that right.
Yesterday was a black day, indeed. When, for a short time, the sword was mightier than the pen.
What's to say that something you or I have published or said, or will publish or say, will not offend some idiot in the future. Some idiot who believes he has a religious or political right to murder you for it. 
How I loathe the people who did this outrage. How I loathe people who think it was justified in any way.

Dust – Rifle Squad

These are the first minis of this year, a SSU Rifle Squad or Ohotniki. Three guys armed with PPSH-48 sub-machine guns and two with Widowmaker rifles. These should work well as ordinary grunts, I guess.

They are painted like my SSU Battle Squad, the only difference being the red star on their caps being Citadel Red Gore and I painted the assault packs in Vallejo 914 Green Ochre to make the painting even more streamlined.

30mm bases from Sally 4th.

Next on the painting table, nearly finished, are the heavy snipers. They are seriously cool. 

Exit 2014 – Welcome 2015

What happened? Another year flew by… a year that was very successful miniatures wise.

So what about the plans I had for 2014, how did they pan out and what’s for 2015?

Blog

Posts – 108 posts during the year, for a total of 371

Hits - around 105K total, meaning I got about 50K hits during the year.

Followers – 46 new followers for a total of 131

My goal for 2014 was to have at least 50 posts – Success!

Kickstarters

“I will go easy on Kickstarters this year.” Fail. Let’s continue J

20mm WWII

Vehicles – 15 painted

Figures – 32 painted

Not a bad year, but I haven’t really done much.

“The goal for 2014 is to paint all the British vehicles and guns, and a lot of them stand ready. I’m just waiting for delivery of some paints.”

Well, I got some of it painted… but not all. Fail

28mm

The infamous GW Giant. Done at last. 

Small and medium painted – 178

Large – 8

XL – 2 (and one of them is that cursed GW giant)

Terrain – quite a few 4Ground houses and a lot of bits and pieces

I started a new ‘period’ – Dust Warfare. Great fun.

A great year for 28mm. I have never painted as much. Not by a long way.

The goals:

Winter war – “My goal for 2014 is to paint at least some of that.” I did paint the first bunch of Russians, still got the first batch of Finns, and I’m waiting for the last batch of minis. Not terribly happy with the sculpts of the soldiers but the vehicles are great. Success!

Wild West -. “My goal for 2014 is to get myself a decent set of skirmish rules and build and paint enough so that I can get at least one game in.” Bought Dead Man’s Hand, built a bunch of minis and have played a couple of games. Success!

28mm SF and fantasy – “Will paint more figures this year, but won’t buy more than maybe a stray figure or two.” – Didn’t buy to many figures directly. Kickstarters don’t count, right…? Anyway, I did paint a lot so I call it a Success!

Other

Thomas and I have started to game evenings bi-weekly, with Laffe and others showing up when they can. It’s great to regularly game and fun to get small games in.

So, all in all, 2014 was a successful year miniatures-wise. A great year.

Plans for 2015

2015 will be a 28mm year. I will concentrate on:

- finishing all the miniatures for the first shipment of Brimstone

Dust so far.

- paint a decent force for two factions in Dust. It looks like it will be Germans and SSU.

- continue with Dead Man’s Hand and get a couple of more figures painted.

2015 will also be a year of terrain. I will concentrate on:

- building a couple of gaming boards for Song of Blades and Heroes and/or Open Combat

- building a board for Dead Man’s Hand

- building a board for Dust

- building and painting a lot of details

I also have a secret minis-project that will run throughout the year. More on that in a years time.

2015 will also be a year of the unforeseen. As usual. Something will probably show up and I will probably fall for it. Something really unforeseen would be for me not to fall for a shiny Kickstarter. But that won’t happen J I will try to cut back on minitures-kickstarters though. I really have enough minis to last me through the year and then some.

See what I did there? No goals! This is about having fun and I will continue to have that. That is actually a goal!

Finally: Welcome followers SinSynn with House of Paincakes, a very amusing blog and Blaxkleric (no blog that I could find. If you do have a blog, then put a link to it in the comments below so I can link to it here.)

RPG Stream and Luchas Stuchly are a new Google+ followers. Welcome.