AHPC X (3) - The First 3 Entries

These are the first 3 entries I posted in the Challenge this year. Riders of Rohan, and 2 gangs for Necromunda. Copied directly from the blog, the italic text is from the editor.

I had grand ambitions of getting these posted in the first day of the challenge but alas real life got a little in the way again this year. One of my short term goals is to play through the new War in Rohan book so I've been hammering away on my Rohan Army to go alongside the Uruk-Hai I started last challenge. First entry from me for this challenge is 12 Riders of Rohan.

These are regular plastic Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figures mostly painted in a mad dash yesterday evening.

Twelve 28mm Cavalry should net me 120 points and put me up on the board. I can't wait to see what this year's challenge has in store.

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Well Matt, you've put the extra time to good use as these Riders look terrific (I love the mass of them). I've always had a soft spot for these figures as they look so dynamic and seem very evocative of the books' description of the Riders.  I also like your clean brushwork, especially on the shields, and the bases really give the impression of them galloping across the plains of Rohan. Lovely stuff.

120 points for your debut on the board. Welcome to Challenge X, Matt!

One of the things I said going into this challenge was there were a couple games I wanted to put on the table by the time the challenge was over. In particular, Necromunda, This is Not a Test, Age of Hannibal, and Posideons Warriors. Although I took a break today to go see the new Star Wars, I managed to make a pretty good dent in one of them by painting my Delaque gang from start to finish.

I figured it'd be a good Christmas Day project because I airbrushed them leather brown and figured itd be a nice quick speed paint. What I did not account for was just how long it'd take to get that copper trim right however I think I managed to pull it off

There are ten figures in total and they were built with the out of the box instructions. I'm a fan of pretty much the whole box but these two are probably my favorites.

Anyway, 10 28mm figures should net me 50 Points.Merry Christmas!

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Excellent work, Matt. I've always liked these figures, but have not seen them done up in brown and I must say they look really good! The copper was an excellent choice for the detail edging as it sets off so nicely against the rich brown base. Great work! 

Are you doing any other factions for Necromunda, or are you tackling another from your bucket list? I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

-Curt

As mentioned in my last post, I want to put this game on the table this Winter and I was on a roll with the last gang. I actually painted the first test figure for this group right after finishing the Delaque but I figured I'd post them all at once.

So this is ten figures, the new plastics, built by the instructions same as last time. I actually bought these the day the week they were released. I love the aesthetic with the candles and nooses. I bought them under the pretense that they'd look cool in a case even if I never played. I got them all built that night and then looked into what book I'd need to play it. At the time to play in a campaign I think I was told I'd need something like 3 or 4 different books to have all the rules for the gang so they went back on the to-do shelf and gathered dust until Dark Uprising and the Gangs of the Underhive book came out.

In particular I think these are my favorite figures of the bunch, the one on the left was the test figure.

Though I also have a soft spot for the gaudy leader type

I think they came out just a little dark, they look a little better in person. My photography skills are in definite need of improvement but overall I'm pretty happy with how these turned out and for me, the challenge is all about turning the lead pile into playable games.

 

I have a few other gangs for Necromunda but I think I'll get a test game or two in before I break the shrink on those. There are a few more models for this gang though (bomb rats) that I'll post as soon as I can find some bases for them. For now though, that's enough figures to get a game going, so its on to the next project for now.

10 28mm figures again for 50 points

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Matt, you're on fire with these Necromunda gangers - excellent stuff. Cawdor is another great looking gang, with lots of gritty models. This being said, I think your use of blue as a contrast colour gives an interesting counterpoint to the otherwise earth(grease)tone of the models. I think my favourite one of the lot is the chap with the combination boat hook / blunderbuss. Easy to learn, hard to master?

Great work Matt. Which is the next gang coming up?

-Curt

AHPC X (2) - Last Minute Prepwork

I've spent all week getting stuff built for the challenge and gathering projects together to paint. In this first pile, theres a batch of the Punic Wars figures, for ease of painting all I've done is glue the strips to popsicle sticks so far. I'll probably be priming this weekend. I've also prepped quite a bit of "odds and ends" type-stuff.

In this first pile, there are the following;

Delaque Gang for Necromunda

Cawdor Gang for Necromunda (along with some bomb rats)

10 Stalker type figures for This is Not a Test

2 boxes of Riders of Rohan as well as the "new" plastic Theoden as well as the old metal one.

Ogre team for Bloodbowl

Small pile of Triremes for Poseidons Warriors

Some modern British Infantry for Contact Front/Force on Force

The Sisters of Battle Army Box

And some surprises, I'm sure

 No paint before Dec.21 of course. I'm sure I'll add some last minute stuff to this first batch but for now this should give me and my Hobby ADD some stuff to choose from. My (very moronic) plan is to basically crash for now and then wake up in the middle of the night and start painting. I'm incredibly excited for the challenge this year and hopefully I'll be able to get a couple new games on the table before Adepticon. Challenge starts in 4 hours.

Review of Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box: Badlands Terrain

Recently I picked up the whole range of Badlands Terrain from Battlefield in a Box by Gale Force Nine. After Searching around a bit online for information I couldn't really find the information I was looking for. The two things I was the most interested in were 1) How much space will one box of each configuration fill? 2) How does this stuff look on a "desert" mat?

Here's how this stuff looks as well as some thoughts on the range and photos of it "in action"

First of all here are the sets laid out on a 4 x 4 table.

I think you can already answer both questions with this photo. Assuming that you're planning on adding some sort of other terrain, whether its roads building etc, you can probably get away with one set each for a standard game of whatever.
Having said that the dark reddish color of these pieces makes them much more useful in my mind for things like 40k, Mad Max, This Is Not a Test, or Gaslands then say something like Modern Middle Eastern gaming for example. They would probably work in an Old West Setting.
For scale purposes pictured are a GW Rohan Warrior, a GW Necromunda Figure, and an Eureak Modern Taliban Figure.
First is the Pillars Set

The "Tors"

 The Plateau

The Bluff

 Finally a shot of a 4 x 4 with the sets mixed in.

So what do I think? I think I'm a fan. Our club had talked in the past of playing Gaslands, or Gorkamorka and I think this stuff is perfect for it. It came exactly as you see it and all I had to do was unwrap the bubble wrap it was packed in and boom, good to go. Having said that, it's too red in my opinion to use for Middle Eastern Terrain which is fine but a little disapointing. I think with the addition of some other less scatter type pieces or one more of the larger formations youd have a pretty nice table.
There are a couple minor problems, however.

First of all, the way they're packaged. The sets come with each piece wrapped individually in bubble wrap. Evidently this isn't enough as you can see below.

These appear to just be hotglued on to me, as evidenced in this photo. Not a deal breaker by any means especially considering the low cost.

One other slightly more major issue however is the warpage on this piece

I ordered one set of the pilars off of ebay prior to ordering this larger pile from my FLGS and it appears they used to be packaged differently and although I'm sure the new way is cheaper, I'd rather have stuff arrive intact

 

So, long story short, I'm happy. The cost is right, the whole set retailing for 120 It's an affordable way to fill a table. Sure, I could probably make something similar with foam but honestly, I won't. I'll make a plan to, and never follow through. I think these photos will speak for themselves and give people a better idea of how the stuff looks on an average table.

3D Printed Zone Mortalis (1)

I've mentioned in passing a few times now that I've bought into the latest version of Necromunda. I have a few of the books, a Cawdor gang and the Dark Uprising box. Though everything is still very WIP I stumbled across the Forgeworld Zone Mortalis Boards and found some updated 8th edition 40k rules for using them. Part of the plan with the Imperial Fists was to play smaller skirmishes and kill team type games with a ZM Board. Between the board itself and the terrain provided in Dark Uprising I've begun 3d printing the board found HERE

Example taken from the Thingiverse page

 Here's where I'm at so far. You get the idea here, and can see the growing stack of base tiles in the background. The printer is running near constantly when I'm home now. For reference, a 6inch tile takes 4 hours 20 minutes to print. These corner wall sections are currently taking 8 and a half.

Still to print are more walls, accessories, detail bits, doors, etc. There are also damaged versions of a lot of the parts so I may experiment with some damaged sections.

Because of the print time and the fact that I have the Dark Uprising terrain, I've been thinking I may experiment with a few more "Open" sections. 

Cost wise the material is much cheaper than purchasing the resin boards (if they were available) but time wise it's a wash. The tiles will still need to be painted and mounted to something for support.

As of right now the printer is "down for maintence" so to speak so I figured I'd post what I had so far while I get it up and running again. The short term plan is to glue these down to some hardboard for stability and then start painting Necromunda figures and the Dark Uprising Terrain to fill it out for now.

AHPC X (1) - Preparation

 

It's that time of year again. Last year I set the (rather lofty) goal of 1000 Points and fell short by about 300. This year however, I'm setting the same goal but beginning the challenge with a plan.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the challenge all the rules can be found HERE.

In short though, each winter a bunch of wargame bloggers get together and pledge a goal to paint over the course of winter. The points per model vary based on scale and subject matter but for reference a standard 28mm foot figure will net you 5 points. In addition to the pledges and painting there are also side duels and themed challenges to earn extra points or show off.

I did the challenge for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. I haven't kept perfect track of it but I believe I've painted more since the challenge began last year than I had in the last five years. Last year saw me complete a Blood and Plunder Native force, an Uruk-Hai raiding party, and a little under 1000 points of Gloomspite Gitz for AoS among other odds and ends. 

Last year, show season kicked off in the middle of the challenge with me going to 3 local shows before the challenge ended. I think I took for granted how busy that would make me and as a result I didn't shift the days I painted those weeks and my output really suffered. The other issue was that, having never participated before, I had no idea what to expect. Models I thought I'd crack out took longer than expected and I received bonus points where I didn't know I could get them. This year I have more of a plan of attack to accomplish my 1000 point goal.

Look at how fancy I've gotten
Above is a spreadsheet detailing my Punic Wars project. At Fall-in This year I purchased another pile of figures from Old Glory to complete this project (and start it) leaving me with one bag of just about everything they make for the era (and then some)
Finishing this list may require a couple orders to some over seas companies like Pendraken for the odds and ends I'm missing but in theory this is achievable. With the horses this project should come out to 701 points and will put a real dent in my goal.

After the Punic Wars (or more likely alongside) Ill be shifting my attention to skirmish forces for a couple games I'd like to try in 2020. In particular, This is Not a Test and Necromunda. I recently took an order of Lead Adventure STALKER types as well as the new Dark Uprising box and hope to crack out the figures as part of the challenge.

If I've done the math correctly that should leave me sitting around 150 points left to complete the challenge which I plan to fill as I get inspired throughout the winter. As mentioned I've started Imperial Fists and more recently Sisters of Battle so perhaps a model here and there will contribute to my total. There's also the matter of terrain for 40k and Necromunda but more on that in a later post.

Either way, wish me luck.

Imperial Fists (1)

For one reason or another I find myself bit by the 40k Bug again. When I got into wargaming fresh out of high school the first game I really got into was 40k. I started with Ultramarines as one does and found that although I enjoyed the game, I didn't really have people to play with because of the costs. This led our group to try Malifaux and eventually Historical Gaming and the rest is history.

While I was at Fall-In this year a friend of mine ran a Badab War game using a modified version of the Betrayal at Calth Board Game GW put out a few years ago. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I hadn't written off 40k by any means but between AOS and the various indie and historical games I play it wasn't high on my radar. Once the seeds had been planted with that game and several discussions with several friends I decided to take the plunge.

The first figure I painted was a Terminator Captain. This was part of the Start Collecting: Space Marines Box. I decided to go with Imperial Fists pretty much solely based on looks. I wanted the challenge of painting yellow and thought they would look sharp on a tabletop.

There's no concrete plan with this force so far (Never a good start). I'm simply painting and collecting models I like and building an army I like the look of. So far this is the only figure I have finished but as of posting this there's a tactical squad awaiting primer. I also picked up a dreadnought and a librarian as well as Tor Garadon.

Like anyone will tell you yellow is a tricky color to paint. I'm very happy with how this came out although the finish is just a tiny bit more matt than id like it. 2 boxes of snap-marines sacrificed their lives for this yellow so I hope it does it justice. I tried both the Army Painter and Vallejo spray primers but found them just too bright. The process was actually pretty simple once I figured it out and uses all available products but does require an airbrush.
Prime with Stynylres White
Basecoat with Averland Sunset Airbrush Paint
Layer on Yriel Yellow with the airbrush
Wash just the recesses with Contrast Gulliman Flesh
Paint the details

Pardon the terrible photo. You can see there were several attempts.

Here are some photos from the above Badab War game. You can see more awesome photos of the terrain over on Keith's Instagram.

So there you have the first of my new 40k army. There isn't a real plan yet but there's talk of playing some Necromunda and Zone Mortalis games (more on that in the future) so I'm mostly focusing on smaller units instead of vehicles to start but like I said, I'm mostly just hobbying to hobby as opposed to a specific force or game with these guys.