Thank you Mr Patten

It may not be too evident from my blog but I am a big fan of Dark Age history. I have quite a collection of Viking, Saxon, Arthurian miniatures plus books etc. I must admit mostly unpainted. But recently I have been picking up the odd figure and painting it for fun, with every intention of returning full time to the period.

So earlier in the year I discovered that Colin Patten the man behind the original 'Gripping Beast Miniatures' (with his brother Duncan), before it was took over by Andy and Darren and became the monster we all love, had launched a new company called Saxon Miniatures. I took a look and the figures are as per usual, in my opinion, excellent. So I ordered the Warlords Deal, and why not! 

(Photos from Saxon Miniatures)

About a month had gone by and nothing had turned up, but the site does say it could take that long for delivery so I was  not concerned. But then I had e-mail from Colin explaining there was a delay with casting and did I want to wait or have a refund. I chose to wait, no contest really. Colin did say he would reward my patience due to the delay.

The figures arrived and are lovely and are sitting in the painting queue at the moment, I'm afraid. I was happy and thought no more about it. Then on Friday a 'Jiffy' envelope arrived and inside was a very pleasant surprise.

These are from the new Arthurian Knights range. Very nice too! These will probably get painted first. I've being in the process of building an Arthurian army since the WAB days. Then I bought Dan Mersey's 'Glutter of Ravens' rules.

and then, several years later, the TooFATLardies rules, 'Dux Brittanniarum'

I have enough Early Saxons completed to use with 'Dux', so I will (by the end of the year, hopefully) have a Romano British army to use with both sets of rules for fast play games. So a project I probably started 10 years ago will be completed or at least part way!

So a big thank you to Colin. I'm sure you like me have other stories of the good service received from the many companies which support and provide for our hobby. But this time I decided to mention this kind gesture.

Here are a few Vikings I painted recently just to prove I have been painting Dark Age figures. From Gripping Beast and if I'm not mistaken sculpted by Mr Patten!

So there you have a rare glimpse into the clutter of my painting desk. The figures in the background may give an idea as to what is my main focus at the moment.

That's it for now more to follow....soonish...

A Short Recess

Yet again I am having to 'close' the blog down. But for what I believe is a worthwhile cause. My good lady has recently set up a site to help sufferers of PTSD, and things are starting to pick up

She is doing this voluntarily and at the moment it is a one woman show. I will be helping out on a voluntary basis, but consequently for a while I will have less time for wargaming. I still intend to carry on with projects and attempt to keep up with everybody's blogs. But posting on my blog will have to stop to make room for other matters.

Thank you to those who have been good enough to follow me so far. I hope to return to the blog at some point in the future. 

I will be on the look out for Mr. Awdry's Batman adventures, the BigRedBat and his excellent large scale ancient games, The Silver Whistle and his stunning photo's of figures and games Mr Mersey's upcoming fantasy rules, Scott's continuing adventures in Middle Earth and keeping an eye on everyone else so I know what's happening in the wonderful world of wargames.

I'm sure that some of the my future games will appear on the site of my good friend the The Secret Wargamer. He likes to inject a bit of humour into the after game reports; I'll leave it upto you to judge the comic value.

More of my time will be directed to this Safe Horizon UK 

So a big thank you to everyone who took time to comment on my posts the kind words were a great encouragement. 

So that's it for now......

Star Wars Armada...first game

Wednesday night has become gaming night. So this week it was my turn to play host. The perfect opportunity to play my brand new Star Wars Armada.

Unfortunately one of our little group couldn't make it. So I was left to entertain the The Secret Wargamer himself. Now despite being a fine fellow; he is ex-merchant navy and likes to regale all who will listen with stories of 'During the Cold War' . 

Since he used to command a tramp steamer between Skegness and Ostend, I knew Armada would be right up is alley. Being an ex-nautical man he would insist on referring to the port and starboard etc etc. So I concocted a cunning plan to use psychological warfare by referring to the left and right side of my starboats. I could see the steam rising in my opponent but as will be seen it was to no avail.

The seen is set....

The Rebel fleet. Under the command of my good self. A CR90 Corvette, a Nebulon B Escort Frigate and four squadrons of X-Wings. How could I lose?

The Imperial fleet (boo, hiss!). A Victory class Star Destroyer and six squadrons of TIE fighters.

 
 

The fleets begin to close.

First blood. 'They're going for the Escort frigate'

The faster Rebel ships close with the Imperials. TIE fighters swarm around the mother ship. In the far distance a Rebel and Imperial squadron are engaged in a desperate dogfight 'I can't shake him! He's on me tight!' 'Hang on Red Two!' . 

The Star Destroyer shrugs off damage like a an elephant swotting flies (or a bantha swotting womp rats!)

Noooo! The Nebulon B takes a full broadside at close range from a 'Fully armed and operational Star Destroyer' . KaBOOOM.

Now the Rebels have to make use of their greater movablility. Long range sniping may win the day!

  

First to deal with those TIE fighters.

The chase is on! It really is a David Vs Goliath contest. The Star Destroyer can pack a punch and take a punch. But she can't turn for toffee!

It's getting close. With TIE's dispatched, the X-Wings join the fray.

But it's too late. The Empire wins the day!

We played the introduction scenario, so no upgrades and played it out for the six turns specified in the rules. the winner being decided on points total at the end of turn six. The loss of the Nebulon B meant a clear Imperial victory.

The game took about two hours, but it was learning the rules and a few mistakes were made along the way. In fact the time taken is not too bad as that is given has a rough guide for game length. Six turns is the recommend game length but of course you can ignore that and just keep playing.

So overall thoughts? An excellent game. It is X-Wings big brother. Don't expect the fast play of X-Wing but if you want a game which captures the flavour of Star Wars big ship battles this is for you. Both of us fully enjoyed the game.

What I need now is more ships. With Wave 1 due to hit the shops soon and Wave 2 just announced by FFG, this is one game I can see being played a lot. The potential for big fleet battles, with multiple players and campaign games beckons.

If you like Star Wars and like X-Wing or even like naval games buy this.

That's it for now more to follow.......   

At last it's here.....

So rather large package arrived this morning (stop what ever you're thinking!)...inside.....Wow!!!!

Gosh, out of the box and onto the table....

The lid is off......

A cheeky shot of the contents.....

Now the big fella, from top down and the rear.....(is that a long low whistle I hear?)

 Steady boys....

That's all for now folks.

I think you get the message; I'm quite excited about this game. I love X-wing and Star Trek 'Attack Wing'. But this is the one I've been anticipating since it was a announced.

Come on, who does not want to be Admiral Akbar saying 'It's a TRAP!!!'. Or is that just me, wanting to be a 6ft tall, walking, talking fish!

Now must return to normal life, have some important things to do. Not least a bathroom to fit. Damn you reality!

I leave you with this...

 That's it for now more to follow....    

Zombie Kill Team Alpha

Hazmat Team, to take on the encroaching Zombie Hordes. But are they there to destroy the undead or kill the living?!

Another project! Well yes and no. Had these figures for about three years, and decided a few months back to get my Zombie Project off the ground. The plan was paint one of these a week, so about four months later finally finished them today.

Figures are Hasslefree and base toppers from Fenris.

Despite their militaristic type appearance, I decided on good 'ole Hazmat yellow (or ochre in this case) for the suit. Plus I'm painting enough camo on 20mm figures. The visor had to be green. This was a nod to Gerry Anderson's UFO series. Those of a certain age will recall that the aliens had green visors on their space helmets (the helmet contained green fluid?). This hid the face, which I always found slightly sinister at the time (though I would have been six or seven when I first watched it!).

The plan is to add more Survivors at a steady pace and of course Zombies. The 20mm Modern will still take precedence at the moment.

That's it for now more to follow......

Father and Son

These are from the 'Star Wars; Imperial Assault' board game. First up, Father. Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.

The son; Luke Skywalker, farm boy.

The figures which come with the game are quite nicely detailed, and are what I would call heroic scale 32mm.  I have not gone to town on them, really just painted them as a bit of fun to use in the game. The painting is a bit heavy handed and I was not too over zealous when cleaning them up either. The bases will be left black.

Actually have not played the game yet, had a quick read of the rules but reviews are very favourable so looking forward to jumping in blasting away at the minions of the Empire or the rebel scum!

Speaking of minions. Also completed this icon of the Empire.

An Imperial Stormtrooper.

 
I was going to add weathering to the armour but decided against it. Partly to save time and partly because I thought I would leave them in the pure white armour so associated with the original, first and best trilogy (unless you were stationed on Tatooine!). In fact I've just used Foundry's Artic Grey triad using the base greys to give shadow and contrast.

I will do more of these on and off. Must admit I quite enjoyed painting these models.

May the Force be with you......

Thats it for now more to follow.......

Technical with ZPU-1

So I took this.....

A 1/72 scale Cararama Ford F150 pick up truck and turned it into this.....

A 'technical' mounting a ZPU-1 14.5mm AA HMG. The gun and crewman are from Elhiem and can be found in the 'Weapon Sets' and 'Insurgent' ranges respectively.

Took the diecast vehicle apart and and airbrushed the body and rear bed black. Then painted and weathered it all before reassembling into the completed model. The wheels, front and rear bumpers have not been painted only weathered and I left the interior alone. The plastic windows were weathered buy airbrushing AK Interactive Dust Effects, after masking off the windscreen to represent the movement of the wipers, and then sealed with Johnsons Klear.

After the painting etc., was finished I applied the final coat of varnish to the separate pieces before putting all back together. The windscreen was not varnished again to avoid any fogging.

I had not originally intended to use the ZPU gun on a pick up. I was going to mount it on a base to be used as a fixed emplacement, to engage air and ground targets. As described by Bing West in his book 'The March Up' when flying over Al Budayr and the helicopter is targeted by heavy MG's hidden amongst residential buildings.

The beauty of these diecast models over the resin pick-ups which are available, is that the rear tail gate can be lowered. The pick up had been purchased to use as a civilian vehicle to add another piece of terrain but after test fitting the tripod gun stand and it fitted then rear bed, the two had to become one.

There are plenty of photo's on the web of these weapons being used on pick ups. Though I used Meng Models 1/35th scale Technical with ZPU-1 as inspiration. Of course there are the photos of the Texas City plumbers truck which was sold three years ago and turned up in Syria still displaying the company logo.

Have not based this one yet, not sure if a will. The wheels have not been glued in place so still turn like they do on all good diecast models!

That's it for now more to follow..........