Painting progress - October, November and December

Quite a few minis finished in this period, though with 3 months to work in it's not as good as I hoped though I have been learning things with the Speedpaints that I think will help me go through a lot of figures in a short period. 

First up Orctober painting 

An Orc and an Elf Lady from Alternative Armies Flintloque range - my first time of painting an Orc in Orctober.

Frostgrave Archer, Infantryman and Knight. Two plastics and a metal from NorthStar.

Three Alternative Armies giant spiders in resin, so I now have 8 of these painted.

 

Two 15mm Hordes of the Future cultist bikes.

Then December's massive set of rebased 20mms and 28mm Fantasy and SF figures.

 A Flintloque Orc and Todoroni, Frostgrave thief, Reaper Troll and a home made Stargrave marker.

 Second World War 20mm rebased command figures - mix of Ceasar, Revell, Italieri and SHQ.

 

  

 

SHQ German command

 

 

 Finally Matchbox British Commandos.

 

 

Another useful Speedpaint video

 

More useful tips on using Army Painter Speedpaints to get great effects, interesting to think about using them more like oils with blending than conventional acrylics. Thanks to Dana Howl for keeping on with these great tips.

Army Painter Speedpaints

 Speedpaints are the Army Painter's response to GW's Contrast paints where the idea is that a single specially formulated paint allows a base coat, shade and highlight effect to be achieved in one application. There has been some controversy about the reactivation effect where overpainting or highlighting causes the speedpaint to bleed in with any water based paint or glaze. This video shows how to get around it and to use reactivation to produce highlighting effects.

Overall I have found that Speedpaints are great for bulk paining armies, which is what they are intended for, but they reward painting that keeps colours in the areas they are meant to be in as they are quite translucent so anything under one can show through. 

Here are some trial pieces I've been working on.

Alternative Armies Sidhe (Celtic Elves) - using Crusader Flesh and Dark Wood. The flesh definitely works better over a flat white undercoat than something else I tried which was a pseudo-zenithal approach with a grey basecoat (AP Uniform Grey) with a white drybrush that I tried with the witches. I think next time I use Dark Wood I'll thin it with some medium as otherwise I find it a bit strong.

Frostgrave Witches made from the plastic set and Reaper Owl familiar. Crusader Flesh, Grim Black, Dark Wood, and Gravelord Grey used so far. I used my pseudo-zenithal technique on these but in future I'll use a plain white finish on skin areas. 

Skeletons from Mantic and Oathmark in Pallid Bone, Dark Wood and Gravelord Grey. Reaper bones troll done with pseudo-zenithal and Orc Skin. I'm pretty happy with these particularly the troll.

Painting Progress October 2022 and Song of Arthur and Merlin plans

 Some figures that I got finished this month mainly for Five Parsecs from Home and Stargrave, with one marker for Silver Bayonet/ROSD. These were largely painted with The Army Painter Speedpaints, where I've found that that it really is critical to get a smooth finish on the undercoat as otherwise the paint tends to clump around any spots.

 

For the Culwych and Olwen campaign I needed a giant which was not something I had in my collection, so I went with Reaper Bones for a Stone Giant, Cave Troll and Basilisk to give me a bigger set of large monsters to work with.

More painting progress and plans for OcTrollber painting

 Finally finished my first set of the walls and barricades I bought from Alternative Armies in the very good value pack, each type of construction comes with 12 40mm lengths, so suitable for DBA or HotT in 15mm or other miniatures games. 

 

These stone walls could be used easily with either 28mm or 15mm obviously representing a much more formidable barrier in 15mm. The following photo shows a 18mm HoF Security Force Alpha officer and a 28mm King Fernando of the Dark Elves from Flintloque for scale purposes.

 

A lot of people use October as Orktober, but not having any orcs in my painting queue, I'll be working on these Reaper Bones monsters including a troll, meaning I can make it OcTrollber.

I am also tempted to pick up some of the old Asgard Miniatures trolls that Alternative Armies have recently released and paint them too.

Painting Progress and Scratchbuilding Terrain from scrap

A picture of my scratch-built terrain finished, made from scrap cardboard, builder's foam, grape stems and scouring pads.

Some papercraft buildings and containers from David Graffam Models on Wargames Vault

And my painting workbench is full of so many things that are close to completion but just not making it over the line in September.

All 22 of these should hopefully be complete by the end of the first week of October - 12 wall sections and 3 spiders from Alternative Armies, 4 Stargrave and 2 Frostrgrave figures from North Star and a marker for Silver Bayonet using an old Minifigs vase.

Painting Progress - slow but hopefully improving soon.

 Some more finished minis. Actually from back in May, with more Alternative Armies, Northstar, Copplestone (Grenadier) and Ral Partha.All a bit overexposed but hopefully some time I'll get to do some photography with better light.

Grenadier Future Warriors Scavengers sculpted by the brilliant Mark Copplestone. Now available from EM4 Miniatures.

Alternative Armies Giant Spiders, L, 2R and R. Ral Partha Sabre Tooth Tiger, Northstar Ice Toad.

Song of Arthur and Merlin - a historical and fantasy project

 Finally resurrecting an old project that I wanted to do from quite a while ago.

Song of Arthur and Merlin is an adaptation of the fantasy skirmish game Song of Blades and Heroes for Arthurian legend and historical post-Roman Britain. The fantasy side of the rules can either be made its primary focus or played down for a gritty game of Dark Age battle.

My project

I'm doing it in 28mm as I have plenty of fantasy miniatures in this scale already for the monstrous side with a mixture of metal and plastic figures from Gripping Beast and other manufacturers as I progress with it.. 

The new Gripping Beast Welsh plastics did actually help make me really keen to progress this as I had picked up some of their generic Dark Age Warriors quite a while ago, but the new figures are much more animated and interesting, though to be fair the original set is mainly aimed at building units of Saxon or similiar shieldwall where dramatic posing is not actually helpful.

The majority of the historical personalities will be metal figures from GB's Welsh, Sub-Roman British and Early Saxon ranges, with fantasy ranges from a variety of sources used to provide wizards, witches and monsters. It will include Reaper bones, North Star, Wargames Atlantic, Alternative Armies and Ral Partha. 

I'll expand on that in a later post.

Another Scarlet Heroes example character

I decided to create a new example character to run a solo campaign with using the numerous tables in the back of the Scarlet Heroes rulebook.

This one is less randomly generated as I had a rough concept that I wanted to use. This will be a halfling thief with a motivation of 'exploring ruins for profit'.

Buckle Lao 

Class: Thief                                                Race: Halfling

Level: 1                                                       Experience Points: 0

Hit Points: 5                                                AC:5

Attack Bonus: +1                                        Fray Die: 1d6

Attacks: 

Ranged Bow 1d8 AB+3, range 210            Melee:  Short Sword 1d6 AB+3

Ranged Lt weapon 1d4 AB+3 range          Melee: Lt weapon 1d4 AB+3

Buckle's village is in the protectorate of Xian, and he has made his way towards the village of , which has been established near the ruins of the ancient city of Tsukaba, rumoured to have tombs containing fabulous wealth.

Characteristics

I rolled 6 4d6 rolls drop lowest and assigning to the characteristics as I wished getting 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, and 15, with the rules allowing me to switch one to 16 as I didn't have any rolls with that value or greater. 

Strength 12

Intelligence 11

Dexterity 16 to succeed he's got to be stealthy +2 bonus

Wisdom 12

Constitution 15 for solo games he needs to be robust +1 bonus

Charisma 10 

 

Racial Characteristics

Immune to panic or terror

 

Background, Innate Qualities, Relationships

Background: Information Seller

Innate Qualities: Natural Linguist

Relationships: Helped a foriegn spy

 

Traits

Bargaining - 1 point

Exploring ruins - 3 points  Class Archetype

Halfling Stealth - 1 point

Information Gatherer - 2 points

Sense Danger - 1 point

Equipment

Started with 130 gp and spent 87gp 6sp so will start exploring with plenty of cash.

 

Cash gp: 42 sp: 4

Light Weapon (short sword)

2 Small Weapon (dagger) 

Bow

Quiver and 20 arrows

Leather Armour

Backpack

Locksmith's tools

Camp gear 1 person

2 days preserved rations

Miniatures painting progress April 2022 part 2

 A last few figures that I finished but didn't have time to photograph before the end of April.

Grenadier Future Warriors dictator and wasteland nomad, Mark Copplestone designs that I enjoy painting. 

Alternative Armies giant spiders. Useful for both fantasy and SF games. 

Miniatures Painting Progress April 2022 part 1

 First batch of miniatures finished in April 2022 - some old Grenadier Future Wars figures sculpted by Mark Copplestone that will see service in Five Parsecs, my Frostgrave mage and apprentice and a couple of cultists, an Alternative Armies carnivorous plant and a Reaper Troll. These include my first efforts with Army Painter Speedpaints on the cultists and plant.

Future Wars Police - the "Copplestone Cops"

Frostgrave Cultists and AA Carnivorous Plant

Frostgrave treasure marker, apprentice and Sigilist

Reaper Troll painted as a frost troll

Miniatures painting progress - March 2022

 A few minis finished off in March 2022. All 28mm figures

Reaper Bones mainly, with the bear, rats and worm from that range and a Ral Partha wraith. 

Mainly painted with Vallejo paints

These will get used for Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadow Deep and other fantasy games.

Five Parsecs - Starting my first campaign

 For my first Five Parsecs from Home campaign I'm going with the easy mode and an all human starting crew. 

The Crew

Using the die rolls I've got this set

1. Background: Tech Guild +1 savvy, +1d6 credits (1), +1 high tech weapon, Motivation: Revenge +2 xp, 1 rival, Class: Nomad +1 gear

2. Background: Mining Colony +1 toughness, Motivation: Survival +1 toughness, Class: Special Agent +1 reaction, Patron, +1 gadget. So pretty tough with toughness 5 and good reactions.

3. Background: Wasteland Nomad +1 reactions, 1 low tech weapon, Motivation: Faith 1 rumor, +1 story point, Class: Enforcer 1 patron, +1 combat skill

4. Background: Frontier Nomad +1 combat skill, Motivation: Fame +1 story point, Class: Artist +1d6 credits (3)

5. Background: Wealthy Merchant Family +2d6 credits (3), Motivation: Romance 1 rumour, +1 story point, Class: Soldier +1 combat skill, +1d6 credits (6) - at last a good roll for credits

6. Background: Drifter +1 gear, Motivation: Adventure 1d6 credits (6), 1 low tech weapon, Class: Starship Crew +1 savvy

Equipment

3 rolls on military weapons: 2 military rifles, 1 auto rifle
1 roll high tech weapons: Blast Rifle 
5 rolls low tech weapons: 2 scrap pistols, shotgun, handgun, machine pistol
Credits: 6 plus 19 gives 25 so not badly set up with funds.

3 gear: Fake ID, Nano doc, Bipod

2 gadgets: AI Companion, Boosted Arm

Other stuff

2 patrons

1 rival

3 story points

Crew met in a bar - very traditional for gaming

How would you be described: Starport Scum (how appropriate as I own that set of rules from Nordic ?Weasel)

Ship

Battered Mining Ship - debt: 25 credits, fuel hog

Five Parsecs Miniatures Choices

 Setting up my first Five Parsecs campaign gives me some choices such as which scale of miniatures to use as I have some 28mm SF (and lots of historical/fantasy minis that might be useful) and quite a lot of 15mm SF.

Figure options 

15mm 

Alternative Armies have several ranges that can work for this, particularly Laserburn and HoF, which have different aliens and a variety of human types. Ground Zero Games also have a wide range and an unbelievably good postal response to orders. There is a small range from CP Models with plenty of character. 

28mm

Lots of options including the Stargrave plastics where probably a sprue of crew and a sprue of mercenaries will cover off your crew needs with maybe another couple of sprues to provide opponents. They are available from North Star who also have metals in the Stargrave and Copplestone Castings ranges, as well as plastic Frostgrave cultists who can be customised with SF weapons to give another option. 

The metal ranges from CP Models have plenty of nice options for aliens and humans including separate heads, weapons and equipment for customisation. Alternative Armies also have plenty of options in this scale as well. 

My choice is to go with 28mm in the end despite having plenty of painted and unpainted 15mm SF.

For terrain I'll mainly be using paper models from Dave Graffam downloaded from Wargames Vault. 

Biblical Hordes of the Things and DBA

Reviving an old project that had stalled long ago - 20mm Biblical warfare with the Hebrews and the Philistines. This is based on using mainly a few packs of Caesar Miniatures 20mm figures though to add chariots to the Philistines I'll use some horses from old Atlantic miniatures though the chariot bodies will need to be scratch built and probably the wheels.

I used the Hebrew and Philistine packs together with the Trojan army pack to provide more heavy warriors for the Hebrews and missile troops for the Philistines. 

Army lists for Hordes of the Things

Hebrews 

Already prepared

Hero @4 points - Samson 

Spear general @2 points - not given this one a name, though it could be Solomon who reigned in the correct era.

2 Warband @2 points - Simeonite and Ephiraimites "mighty men of valour" with a bit of repair needed on the central figure on the left hand unit.

2 Shooters @2 points -Benjaminite archers and slingers

3 Spears  @2 points - other tribes, though I have considered making these hordes for HotT

To do 

Cleric @3 points - Moses with the tablets

Sneaker @3 points - Judith outside Holofernes tent

2 Spears @ 2 points - tribesmen

1 Shooter - Benjaminite archers

An actual army list would be 

Spear General - 2 ap
Hero (Samson) - 4 ap
Cleric (Moses) - 3 ap
Sneaker (Judith) - 3 ap
2 Warband (Simeonites and Ephiraimites) - 4 ap
2 Spears (other tribes) - 4 ap
2 Shooters (Benjaminites) -  4 ap
Total - 24 points

For DBA the Early Hebrew list (I/27) is largely 3Aux with a few Psiloi and Warband. To get into later periods Chariots start to be an element. Given the Hilly terrain type this is definitely an army that will need to use terrain to be effective. 

Philistines

Already prepared

Hero @4 points - Goliath 

Blade general @2 points

6 Blades @2 points 

2 Shooters @2 points - javelinmen

To do 

Knight general @2 points - generals chariot

Knights @ 2 points - chariot

2 Shooters @2 points - subject slingers and archers

other possibility is a god @4 points such as Dagon or Baal, but the first of those tends to be confused by H.P. Lovecraft's appropriation of the name. Not sure how I would represent either of them on table. 

Army list

Blade general @2 ap

Hero (Goliath) @4ap 

6 Blades @12 ap 

3 Shooters (javelins and bows) @6ap

Knights (chariots) @2ap

Total 24ap 

 

DBA Early Philistine (I/29a) list is largely a Blade army with only a few 3 Auxilia, light Chariots and Psiloi for variation. One thing that I find a little odd with the DBA lists for the Philistines is the sudden change from a largely blade army to a chariot and spear army with the list I/29b.The army becoming more similar to the Cannanite types in the area they colonised seems logical, but I would have expected transitional states with subject spearmen and still some of the Philistines fighting in their previous agressive manner. 

Silver 'loque - Flintloque and Silver Bayonet combined

Looking at Osprey's new Silver Bayonet game I immediately spotted how it would be a good use for my Flintloque miniatures. My Witchlands undead give me vampires and revenants that I can use and I have a range of nations including civilian types that can allow plenty of variations. 

I've started planning a section based on my Catalucian Dark Elves as I think I've got a nice range of options from my collection.

Left to right Veteran Hunter: Ramon Tambor, Capitane Primo del Porque, Grenadier Carne de Vaca and Irregular Javier Castanette

Privates: Jamon, Croquette, Burghua, and Patatas

Cardinal Ximenez (Priest) and King Fernando of Catalucia

Commander

Capitan Antonio Primo de la Porque
Speed	Melee	Accuracy	Defence	Courage	Health	Recruitment
7	+2	+1	14	+3	12	100
Attributes: Inspiring, Unflappable
Equipment: Silver Sword, 2 Pistols, Salt Bag.

Veteran Hunter:  (30 points)

Hunter: Ramon Tambor
Speed	Melee	Accuracy	Defence	Courage	Health
6	+2	+2	14	+0	12
Attributes: Great Faith
Equipment: Cold Iron Sword, Musket, Cartridge Box.

The rest of the section use the standard profiles and I've just noted which ones I've given special armoury equipment. 

Grenadier Carne de Vaca (15 points)

Equipment: Musket, Cartridge Box, Cold Iron shot.

Irregular: Javier Castanette (15 points)

Equipment: Musket, Cartridge Box, Oil and Torches.

Infantrymen: Privates Jamon, Croquette, Burghua, Patatas (40 points)

Options

As options I can use my Catatonic Inquisitor as a priest, Cardinal Ximinez, who would cost 20 points and could replace a couple of the Infantrymen, though the recommendation is to have the maximum 7 characters in the unit. I'd give him a holy signal from the suiting his role.

King Fernando will probably only turn up as a civilian in my scenarios, probably requiring rescue from nefarious dark forces.

Todoroni Section for Flintloque

My BelloLugosi Militia section.

I like to try and have a theme for my Flintloque sections with giving the figures individual names, so inspired by BellaLugosi, I've gone with classic Hollywood movie stars from the 1930s. I've not been totally rigid in making these fit to the characters as I just really wanted to have some inspiration for the names and to get away from just calling them Luigi, Sandro, etc.

Command - Singer Pavarotto, Standard bearer Lautoni,  Marquis du Grande Frappechino (not part of the section), Teniente Errolflynni

Line in order -Privates Fairbanko and Karloffi, Corporal Hardi, Privates Laurello and Garycoopa.

Stats for the section:

Teniente Errolflynni (Section Leader), Experienced, Militia	Points 34
Skills/Traits: Duellist, Jamminess
Melee +0, Discipline -1, Accuracy +5%, Steady 2
Standard Pistol, Sword Even for a Toadoroni, the Teniente is fond of boasting, but his skill with a sword and sheer luck make it easy for him to get away with his outrageous claims.
Corporal Hardi(Second Second) Average, Militia	Points 23
Skills/Traits: Tap Loading, Grenade Tongue, Dazzling Uniform
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Musket, Bayonet Private Laurello's best friend, but prone to misadventures leading to his catchphrase "this is another nice mess you've gotten me into".
Sergento Carlo Lautoni Average, Militia	Points 20
Skills/Traits: Brawler, Foul Temper
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Standard Pole, Knife
Singer Pavarotto Raw, Militia	Points 11
Skills/Traits: Water Mess, Valon's Worst Coward
Melee -2, Discipline -3, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Singer(Musician), Knife
Private Laurello Average, Militia	Points 23
Skills/Traits: Frighten, Rapport(Hardi)
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Musket, bayonet Best friend of Corporal Hardi
Private Garicoopa Raw, Militia	Points 14
Skills/Traits: None
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet
Private Fairbanko Raw, Militia	Points 17
Skills/Traits: Glimmer, Hop Atop
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet
Private Karloffi  Raw, Militia Skills/Traits: none	Points 14
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet

And some reinforcements in the painting queue, strictly speaking neither is from the Bellalugosi militia set, but it will add some variety to have a big todoroni in there. 

Privates Johnwayno and Rathboni awaiting painting. 

Private Rathboni, Average, Militia, Small Todoroni	Points 25
Skills/Traits: Improved Discipline(1), Nerves of Steel
Melee -1, Discipline -1, Accuracy -10%, Steady 1
Musket, Bayonet Unusually brave for a tororoni, Rathboni is able to keep his calm in most situations unlike the rest of his section.
Private Johnwayno  Raw, Militia, Big Todoroni	Points 20
Skills/Traits: None
Melee +2, Discipline -1, Accuracy -10%, Steady 2
Musket, Bayonet.

Microgaming part I

Recently I've dug up my collection of old Metagaming Microgames, which started with Ogre in the early days of my gaming hobby in the end of the 1970s. I've got quite a lot of these games, so I will not try and list everything in this one post and some of the less played games I need to spend time studying and replayging to remember what they were like.

Ogre is the most played as it is easy to play to a conclusion in 30 minutes for experienced players. This means my copy must have been played with probably several thousand times over the 30 odd years that I have owned it. Of course Steve Jackson has kept it in print and produced large numbers of variations upon it, but ultimately it still goes back to that simple little game that it all started with. This is the reprint copy I bought a few years ago as I still need to find my original one. 

I even picked up this book with articles from the Space Gamer and other magazines included in it, showing I really was keen on this. 

GEV is a stand alone game in the Ogre setting, but has both sides usually with a mixture of armour and infantry and a wider range of scenarios playable. This means that it does stand up to repeated frequent play better than Ogre, particularly if additional scenarios from the various places are used as well as the basic ones included in the game. 

Another game I really liked was Sticks and Stones - a game about the dawn of warfare in the Stone Age with a solo mammoth hunt scenario I played quite a few times.

New Books - Gridded Naval Wargames and !Arriba Espana!

 A couple more wargaming books from Bob Cordery.

Gridded Naval Wargames

One for me to pursue ACW naval battles with, though I am also really interested in the unusual designs of the pre-dreadnaught era with the casement batteries and particularly the naval actions of the 1879 War of the Pacific. 

There are 6 sets of rules included in the book including 4 battle reports and a guide to making ACW ironclads using wood. There are also suggestions for expanding the rules for combined arms actions and including aircraft.

!Arriba Espana! including the Portable Spanish Civil Wargame

I already had the Arriba Espana rules from their original publication, but the modifications to the portable wargame which I now favour for this period were a good reason to get this. Hopefully this will get me going on putting my SCW collection to use. 

Testing the ACW version of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame

A playtest of my latest version of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame for the American Civil War, Brigade level rules.

I used Scenario 25 from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames though I adapted it by having both sides with the same size forces rather than the smaller blue army though I adjusted the balance by the Confederate infantry all having smoothbores rather than rifles. The scenario is inspired by the First Battle of Kernstown, so is quite appropriate for the ACW. The Confederate objective is to exit 2 units off the north road edge opposite from the side they have entered.

I also used the card based activation using turns as I think that I needed a stricter turn sequence for the victory conditions with the Confederates having initiative on the first turn.All the generals and unit names are fictitious, though the infantry and cavalry could well equate to real units.

Due to losing some of my notes this has been much delayed and has fairly brief descriptions of the mid game turns. 

Orders of Battle

Union 

• Brigadier General Clifford Mountain (average) 6AP
• Battery D, 1st Ohio Light Artillery (10 pound Parrot rifles) 2AP
• 51 NY Cavalry 3 AP
• 111th, 112 Ohio Infantry 4AP each
• 35th West Virginia Infantry 4AP 
• 89th Ohio (Bradley's Zouaves) 4AP 

Total of 27 AP Exhaustion point 9 AP

Confederate

• Brigadier General Graxton Cragg (average) 6 AP
• Roanoke Light Artillery (12 pound Napoleon smoothbores) 2 AP
• 18th Virginia Cavalry 3AP
• 28th, 32nd Virginia Infantry 4AP each
• 77th, 112th Arkansas Infantry 4AP each
• 56th Louisiana Infantry 4AP 

Total of 30 AP Exhaustion point 10AP

All units were rated as Average.