2016 end of year post

Ah, the annual end of year retrospective post, wherein I analyse loosely how little my yearly output matched the aims that I had set out the previous year, and then waffle on a bit, glad that the Tally resets to zero and I'm finally back in the black (also known as 'the most wonderful time of the year')

Tally

56 vs 343 = -287

2016: -287 (56 painted)

2015: -96 (59 painted)

2014: 0 (80 painted)

2013: -416 (25 painted)
2012: -103 (68 painted)
2011: -173 (122 painted)

Not my worst year, and not bad considering the Tally mostly took a hit when I came into possession of a very large box of warhammer all the way back in March. I'd actually been doing pretty well up until that point (although in the interest of full disclosure that's because I was saving all of my hobby pennies for the annual outing to Salute, but that admission paints me in less of a 'saintly paragon of self control' light). Once again Zomtober was a fairly weighty contributing factor to my painted models total, as I got a bit carried away and went somewhat over the one model a week target for the month...

Whilst writing this, I've discovered a mathematical error in the Tally as it appeared in my posts thus far, and so have adjusted the finished total accordingly! In my defence, I'd only missed one acquistion (the freebie on the first issue of the relaunched White Dwarf, which it seems I added to the Tally but forgot to keep on the total the post after...)

Posts

40 posts this year - apparently I was chattiest in 2014 when I managed to make 69...

Aside from posting nothing at all in June (having moved house at the start of the month, all of my paints and miniatures were boxed up until I got my hobby basement sorted!) it seems that I've actually managed to post semi-regularly this year - this feels fairly surprising, as now my daughter is getting older I seem to have less hobby time (gone are the days when she was basically a beautiful sleeping potato, these days I tend to find miniatures in her doll house or she wants to sit on my lap and paint too).

Starting an Instagram account for my painting seems to have helped with engaging with other hobbyists too, as I can post WIP pictures and things rather than having to have something finished to show as tends to be the case with my posts on here.


Projects (according to last year's end of year post)

Star Wars

Only one miniature finished for this project (the Talz Copilot), but a few bits half done.

Every time I go to prep the rebel miniatures I have to make an opposing force for the stormtroopers that I painted way back when, I end up browsing for more to fill in the gaps in my collection to make useable forces, and can't justify the cost to buy from the states- does anyone have any they want to trade so that I can kickstart this project and actually get something painted?

The same goes for Zuckuss - my lack thereof seems to have become a bigger mental stumbling block than it should, really, and I've vowed to myself that I won't paint my nice shiny (and now long Out of Print) Knight Models Boba Fett until I've painted 4-Lom and Zuckuss, to make a complete set of the Bounty Hunters from Empire...

ASOIAF

Only the Wights and Others that I painted for Zomtober were actually finished and posted up on the blog, but there have also been a few bits converted or half-painted behind the scenes over the year, so the project endures...

Batman

A couple of bits finished for this, but as ever in a disorganised fashion as things struck my fancy - I even actually finished the Bat himself this month! Still haven't started any of the expensive official Knight Models miniatures that I have though...

Zombies

Nothing modern finished this year, just the fantasy zombies for Zomtober. It's one of those projects that I can always add something to though (and have plenty of things assembled or undercoated, ready to go whenever it takes my fancy)

on the back burner:

The Last of Us - still haven't made any real progress on this, other than occasionally taking out the bits I had put aside, sighing, and then putting them away again (although my Joel and Ellie miniatures were pulled out as backups for this year's Zomtober, but ended up getting shelved in favour of the direction I ended up going) - with The Last of Us 2 being announced though, maybe that will swing my hobby focus back this way...

The Thing -I dug out my selection of gribbly bits from my bits box, then got distracted googling other people's conversions for gaming The Thing in 28mm, and got a bit disheartened because what I found other people had done was really good...

Path to Glory - The same story as ever - the entire warband is sat undercoated in the tray of WIP miniatures in the top of my hobby desk. When White Dwarf relaunched and had a free Khorne Champion on the front, I speculatively rolled up a warband for him, but it didn't spur me to actually build or paint anything...

Mass Effect -Still waiting on finding some suitable helmets for the Cerberus Assault Trooper conversions. Also, my friend that currently has access to a 3D printer is changing jobs soon, so it might become even less likely to happen...

ROTPOTA- I really need to get on with painting some monkeys. I have some lovely monkeys, but most of them have fairly hefty integral bases, and when it comes to choosing how to spend my limited hobby time some relaxing painting or kitbashing with Perry bits tends to win out over grinding off lumps of metal with a rotary tool...

Whilst Fallout wasn't specifically a listed project in last year's post (merely being alluded to) the number of completed miniatures increased four-fold, although admittedly that's because it was only a single miniature strong before this year started! 

Once again, still no Sanity Claws for Christmas. Mostly because I only ever really think about it at this time of year when it's way too late to get one in time for Christmas, and I'm too broke to get one anyway!

Projects for 2017:

Star Wars - I saw Rogue One last week. I really want to convert some Commandos. Or kitbash some fancy black Stormtroopers using Stormtrooper bodies and helmets from specialist Clone Troopers. And maybe buy Star Wars Imperial Assault. Seriously, anyone with old WOTC minis to trade, get in touch.

ASOIAF - I'm going to finish this project before GRRM finishes the book series, so no rush.

Japes aside, I still enjoy converting and painting miniatures for this project (plus, I have quite the stash of bits for it) - maybe I'll even work on some long-plannede conversions, as hinted at by my choice of image...

Zombies - I'm aiming to do Zomtober again this year. Although technically it was AE:WWII that got me back into the hobby way back when after my teenage hiatus, it was the zombie project that was my first real project, and so a main project it will likely always stay. I've probably painted more zombies than I'll realistically need over the last few years, but there's always something else I can add, whether it's more zombies from the various stashes of miniatures in my hobby drawers, or more survivors, that can be used interchangably with the majority of my other 'mildly post-apocalyptic' projects like The Last of Us or Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

On the back burner:

Batman - I'll still pick at the occasional model, but without worrying about what. I think in part I'm moving this project out of the spotlight to trick myself into getting something done, as that seems to be the case when I focus on something else...
Fallout - it would be a main project if I had more minis that I could use for it. Who knows though, maybe I'll actually properly read the Salute guide this year and find out if Brother Vinni is in attendance before he's sold out of all of his Nuclear Sandlot miniatures... Then again, I've actually had a chance to sink a few hours into Fallout 4 over the festive period, and been inspired to convert some miniatures that I have squirreled away, so you never know...
The Last of Us - as previously mentioned, it's a solid maybe. If I end up placing that order with CP models though...
Path to Glory - I should probably drop this off of the list, given how long it's beenon here (and how many unposted WIP pictures I have of the conversions), but part of me still wants to believe that I'll be able to turn my focus onto these and knock them out fairly quickly. More likely, however, is that I'd probably pull out the tray they're in and get distracted by the basecoated 3rd edition Human Blood Bowl team that's sat next to them...
ROTPOTA - hangs on by a thread, because really all I need to do is paint some apes!

So, place your bets on what actually gets painted next year!

2015 in review - already?!

The annual year in review post already? Wow, that really flashed past... As per usual, I'll review my 'progress' on the projects I honestly thought I'd crack on with this year (the more pessimisticly minded might see these posts as a listing of my failures, but I'd like to think I'm a bit more optimistically pragmatic than that...)

Tally

59 vs 155 = -96

Not the worst year for final tally score or for number of painted figures (that honour stays with the year I got married and started a new job), but nowhere near the best either! I dread to think how bad the numbers would have been if I hadn't finished that zombie herd for the Zomtober big finish though! Who knew, having a baby eats into your hobby time :s

2015: -96 (59 painted)

2014: 0 (80 painted)

2013: -416 (25 painted)
2012: -103 (68 painted)
2011: -173 (122 painted)

Last years projects (according to the plans made in the end of year post):

ASOIAF

A flurry of activity at the start of the year saw me complete a small chunk of figures for this project, including a couple of characters that I'd had in progress for quite some time, but then my attention wandered somewhat and didn't return this way at all. 

With those figures completed, I've probably got enough to actually play a small skirmish game, once I finish cribbing together some rules (and assuming I don't start planning mass battle armies...)

Weirdly though, walking in to work this morning thinking about writing this post, I got myself quite enthused thinking about all the conversions and plans I had for this project, so who knows, once I finish some Batman figures and clear some space in the painting queue I might revisit this project!

The Last of Us

Having not bought the bits I wanted from Miniature Mojo (or the lovely fungus infected heads from CP Models) I've had pretty much zero impetus to paint the models I already have for this project. Onto the back burner it goes!

The Thing

Looks like when I said last year that this was a small scale project that I'd likely get distracted from, I wasn't wrong! Zero progress made, so probably onto the back burner for this one...

Star Wars

I only finished two figures for this project in the last year, which would normally be enough to relegate a project to the back burner, but come on, it's Star Wars, so it gets a pass. As soon as I stock up on some more 25mm round bases, I could put together some Rebels in order to have two skirmish size forces; however, there are a number of figures I'd quite like to bolster the variety of sculpts that I do currently own, but being pretty broke prevents me from stocking up and seems to give me project parslysis! One day I'll get Zuckuss though, in order to be able to complete my set of the Bounty Hunters... Plus I'll try and save some pennies to pick up a copy of Imperial Assault, as that comes with a plethora of tiny plastic space men...

Path To Glory

I still own the figures, but keep getting distracted from actually finishing them. Onto the back burner!

Mass Effect

Around the time my daughter was born, I acquired a copy of Sedition Wars from a disillusioned friend, and bought some Mantic Enforcers and Infinity figures to use for Cerberus conversions - I have been unable to source suitable helmets for these though, which has prevented me making any progress... I live in hope that one day I'll find someone has put CAD files up somewhere so that I can get a friend to sneakily 3D print some!

On the back burner:

ROTPOTA - one of those projects that I tend to look at and think 'well, it really wouldn't take much to get these done oh wait what's that shiny thing over there'

Nerdmarines - haven't been touched. 

Batman - I painted the Scarecrow! I've got a bunch of half-painted minis for this (as well as a box of unassembled Knight Models figures); one day, one day...

Everything else - the zombie project (the project that got me back into miniatures, and started this blog!) got some love this year, with an unusually active Zomtober - not bad for a project that was so far down my list of priorities that it didn't even get a heading on last year's plans! I've got enough of a backlog of zombie miniatures to keep me busy for years to come, so I don't think it will ever go away, and hopefully at the very least next year will see me complete Zomtober again!

Other than that, it was mostly odds and sods that caught my fancy that got painted, like a couple of Superheroes when the wife and I were watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe releases and the puppet guy from Fallout...

Next years projects:

Star Wars

I'll try and paint a squad or two of Rebels, as well as the rest of my Bounty Hunters if I can get a Zuckuss. In an ideal world, I'd find a Roron Corobb miniature going cheap so that I had all the bits needed to replay Palpatine's abduction from the Clone Wars animated series, but I should probably walk before I run!

Also, I've recently been reading the old D20 RPG rules and voraciously consuming PDFs of old issues of Star Wars Gamer, so in the back of my mind I'm considering running a Star Wars RPG, but we'll have to wait and see on that front...

ASOIAF

I always quite enjoy converting soldiers for this project, so here's to hoping that once the decks are a bit clearer next year I'll be able to do some more of that!

Batman

I hope to at least finish the half dozen half-painted figures that I currently have on the go, and then make a start on the Knight Models figures that I have. The chap that I was going to play this with has just moved to Germany though, so there's less impetus to actually finish anything...

Zombies

No big plans for this really, but at the very least I'll aim to complete another Zomtober!

on the back burner:

The Last of Us - unlikely to get any progress made unless I get to make orders with Miniature Mojo and CP Models, but you never know...

The Thing - who knows...

Path to Glory - hmm, it's been so long on the back burner that GW have actually updated the rules themselves...

Mass Effect - if I can find suitable helmets, I have more than enough models to make a skirmish scale force. Until then...

ROTPOTA - *shrugs* 

I've got Fallout 4 to play on the PS4 too, so that might see some attention turned towards that project...

And who knows, maybe next year will be the year that I get around to buying a Sanity Claws on eBay and painting him up for Christmas?

Realm of Chaos scenery

So, a couple of years back, during my 'determined to start a Path To Glory campaign' phase, I decided to make some scenery to go with my set of generic rocky terrain to portray battles fought in the Chaos Wastes.

Thick card for bases, thin cork layers and a box of Wargames Factory skeletons that I bought from someone on the Lead Adventure Forum that had tried building them and given it up as a fool's errand (as one of the connections in the models is between the ankles and feet, giving almost no point of contact for glue...)

Some cutting, layering and glueing later, we have the basis of a couple of bone pits and a pool of blood (standard northman decor)

Apply textured paint (just cheap black acrylic mixed with sand, filler and whatever oddments I happen to have within arms reach)

I fancied making a mini diorama-esque piece too - the skeleton of a marauder that had had his leg broken, and propped himself up against a rocky outcrop to wait for death. The body was easy enough to make (as it rested against the rock, rather than trying to build one standing)...

And to really tie it in as a piece of Chaos scenery, I hollowed out a marauder helmet and shaved down a skull to fit inside it!

Cleaned up skeleton bits were then haphazardly glued into the bone pits, and everything got a coating of poundland grey spray. [side note: I don't think I've actually finished painting any of the miniatures that you can see undercoated in that last picture]

After painting the bones and bottom of the blood pool, I have everythin a generous wash of diluted Vallejo Smoke, the get everything looking grubby and shaded.

Fast forward a couple of years...

A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally finish this mini-project, as it had been sat in a box near completion for far too long. I painted all the bones, drybrushed all the rocky areas up to Bleached Bone, and then made a start on the blood in the pool of blood. 

After painting the base of the pool in reds and a layer of Tamiya Clear Red (the go-to paint for blood effects) I gave it a coat of PVA glue, figuring I could create some depth with glue and translucent paints to make it look deeper than it was actually modelled.

The thing is, I hadn't realised how long PVA glue takes to dry. Into the cupboard with the stacks of half-painted miniatures and currently in-use paints it went for a couple of days to protect it from dust, until it looked like this:

Not very deep at all. So, rinse and repeat:

Another thin layer, another couple of days, and I think fine, that will have to do to avoid it taking another two years! Plus, the PVA was drying less translucent than I had envisaged, so on to painting!

A layer of TCR went on, which looked a little bright on its own;

So while it was still wet I added a few drops of Armypainter Strong Tone and blended it in, to make it look darker and gorier.

Several layers of the GW blood effect paint Blood for the Blood God later and we have a nice sticky wet looking pool of blood!

So the finished set looks like this:

Added to the existing rocky scenery, we have enough to set up a picture of Gotrek and Felix trekking through the Wastes, waiting for the next calamity to stumble into...

Now, for some behind bs the scenes info: just how do I get these blurry poorly lit shots that seem to make up most of the pictures on my blog. Well, this is how:

Yes, I wear a shirt and tie whilst taking iPhone pictures for my blog. Which also explains some of the weird typos you might have noticed, as autocorrect doesn't believe in some words that I use and I don't always catch them before posting...

One day I may come back to this terrain set (if I ever paint my Path to Glory warband that's been sat undercoated for who knows how long now), and add some additional elements - a forest of spikes jutting out of the ground, a large altar, or some mysterious gateways an obelisks maybe...

Works in progress

Still beavering away on a few bits (in fact, posting this whilst waiting for a hot glue gun to heat up):

Half-finished scenery project started a couple of years ago that I suddenly thought 'hey, I could easily finish that and post about it' last night. Alas, PVA glue takes a lot longer to dry than I'd expected, so this is currently living in the cupboard of WIPs...

Other half-finished terrain project I'm currently trying to get to the point I can start painting, although as I'm working on it I keep thinking if I make the urban barricade / rubble multipurpose terrain I've been thinking about for a while I could paint it all at the same time and theoretically be more efficient (although realistically it's more likely that I'll just have twice as much half finished terrain awaiting painting next time I hit a productivity lull...)

Welp, in the course of writing this post I've discovered a load of bits of scenery that is put aside for building a graveyard, a bunch more bits of resin urban detritus to potentially go into making barricades, and given up on the hot glue gun as it's cheap and old and the glue is cooling and setting before I can get the two things I'm trying to attach together! Looks like a job for superglue and fervent under breath swearing instead then...

Four more years! 2014 in review...

Ah, the annual year in review post, wherein your intrepid author aims to objectively review his project progress for the year without waffle or navel-gazing, which inevitably devolves into a list of things that I have still not completed and the things that distracted me from them!

I made 68 posts last year, making it my most prolific to date. Despite my claims last year that I'd try and post more wip posts rather than just painted miniatures, this didn't always happen (and in fact there are still wip projects waiting to be posted from the year before!) - an exception being the post before this one, but in the interest of full disclosure I'd have to admit that he only got posted because I was reminded of the fact that I was going to be posting more wip pics whilst working on a draft of this post!

I also managed to make at least one post a month, although the traditional drought towards the end of the year was still present - I just don't seem to get stuff done in the Autumn and Winter! This year admittedly though it was down to a number of factors, including some time spent playing Mass Effect, a downer period of wanting to get a new job, and preparation for the impending arrival of my daughter next year, which will also mean that I'll have less hobby time next year! Well, we all know I was never going to be an army painter anyway...

Tally

80 vs 80 = 0

I squeaked it back into the black (technically) at the eleventh hour, which is especially impressive considering the monumental size of the negative the year before!

2014: 0 (80 painted)

2013: -416 (25 painted)
2012: -103 (68 painted)
2011: -173 (122 painted)

Last year's 'projects for next year':

Path to glory

Another year, and the warband is still sat undercoated in a box waiting for a tickle with the paintbrush. Admittedly a little paint has been daubed on some of the miniatures, but not enough to warrant a post about the affair. Whilst I did in fact get round to producing a finalised updated set of rules for the modern wargamer who fancied a spot of Chaos warband based skirmish wargaming, I still have as of yet to finish the Chaos Wastes themed scenery that has likewise been sat half-finished for over a year now... It's a bit of an odd fish this one, as it's a project that I'm enthused about, I have everything I need for it, and it's not exactly an unreasonable amount of miniatures to paint before calling it done, but it just seems whenever I go to put some time into it something else always seems more appealing... I'm not going to relegate this project to the back burner just yet, as it's still eminently achieve able, but admittedly that's what I said this time last year... 

Batman

I emptied the Heroclix figures out of my stripping pot, found that they were generally still as caked in paint as the year I'd put them in there, and then packed them away in a baggie. Onto the back burner for this project, for now at least...

Zombieslayer/slayers

I acquired some more for the collection, and painted Gotrek and Felix, but beyond  cleaning up and undercoating a couple if models no other progress has been made...

It's a bit like the Path to Glory project in a way, in that I've pretty much for everything I need, but whenever I sit down to paint something there's always something else that just piques my interest a little bit more...

Star Wars 

(This picture is from my wedding day)

The one project that looked like I was actually focusing on a single thing for once, after playing some Star Wars Battlefront with my godson back in August and joining the 6 Month Mountain Reduction Project, I beavered away and managed to knock out a few painted figures! All I need to do now is paint up an equivalent amount of Rebel Troopers and (gasp) I could even use them to play some sort of game!

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones):

Waaaay back in February, I painted the House Stark troops that I'd previously converted. Other than that, I've converted a couple of Lannister troops, worked on my in armoured Jaime conversion (the head I have for it is just a smudge too big I think, curse you slender figures!), and done some work on the flesh times of my Ned conversion, but nothing else. The Christmas gift of some new Perry sprues should spur me into some more conversions though (and admittedly, the only reason I didn't start doing some on Christmas Day was that my superglue had dried out!)


Dungeons and Dragons

It seems ever more unlikely with the passage of time that my 4e game will take off (I mean, 5th edition is out now, it's been that long). That doesn't stop me from painting generic fantasy miniatures though, and as I'm currently playing in a Pathfinder campaign I may end up painting a few miniatures for that too, and then it's really just the same project with the serial numbers filed off and a snazzy new title...


Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I bought the hench gorilla I was after from Bushido the game, and put him in the tub of miniatures that I have for this project. I even picked up the Heroclix figures I was after for a couple of conversions (I wanted some 28mm discarded riot gear for apes to brandish), but having still not gotten around to seeing the film, bar a single slightly too small gorilla painted back in April my attention still hasn't swung around to painting up gangs of apes (and potentially the whacking great integral bases that need filing off of a number of the miniatures might have something to do with it too...)

Others:

The backburner projects: Halo, Three Kingdoms, Doctor Who, Blood Bowl, and all the rest - not a lot doing. I painted up a couple of Silence miniatures, and the occasional oddment that caught my eye, as is my way.

I did however finish the display board that I was making, that I now use in most (if not all) of the pictures that I post, so that's a victory of sorts I guess?

Next years projects:

(Yes, this will be the basis of next year's retrospective post)

ASOIAF

As mentioned, I've just had some new figures for this project, so will hopefully be able to take the two starter forces up to skirmish level (including painting my Ned conversion and finishing off my Jaime). This project has always suffered from being a bit too grand in scope, as I have ideas for all sorts of warbands, but if I can get a couple done then I can add a figure or two here and there gradually as time goes on... 

Since starting the draft of this post, I've built a couple of House Stark archers and bought a copy of the World of Ice & Fire book, so you may be seeing something from this project sooner than you'd expect!

The Last of Us

If I let myself buy some bits from Miniature Mojo (assuming that the bits that I want are back available on their webstore) then with the bits I already have squirrelled away and a little green stuff this project could be a goer, as it only needs about half a dozen conversions and it's ready to go! We've heard that before though, so we shall see...

The Thing

As my beloved put some 'not The Thing' survivor miniatures from Studio Miniatures in my stocking this Christmas, and I have a whole host of chaos spawn bits for making grubby fleshy monstrosities in my bits box, this is another small scale easily achieveable project that I will probably get distracted from...

Star Wars

As previously mentioned, basing and painting a squad of rebels is all I'd need to do to have two skirmish size forces, then it would just be a case of painting the occasional figure that caught my fancy (like the remaining bounty hunters, for example - if anyone has a spare Zuckuss figure lying around to complete my set I'd be eternally grateful...)

Path To Glory

Same as last year, I just need to finish painting the warband that's been under coated for gods knows how long... And then finish the scenery that is already almost done...

Mass Effect

Way back when (four years or so back) I started playing the original Mass Effect. Alas, my xbox wiped my save, and it was four years before I was ready to give it a second chance, and even then that is mostly because a friend of mine played through the games around the time of the birth of his son, and with the imminent arrival of my daughter I thought that seemed like as good a reason as any to give it another go! Being a Bioware game (oh, Knights of the Old Republic, how I loved you), it's a compelling sci if tale that really would translate quite well to something miniatures based, whether that be a tabletop wargame or perhaps the D20 RPG that you can find floating sound on the internet... Alas, I don't have any miniatures already in the lead mountain that can be pressed into service, but if I can get my hands on a copy of Sedition Wars and some Infinity and Mantic miniatures I should be able to come up with something! The main issue I've had so far is that all of the aliens look so very... alien, which makes it hard to proxy humanoid scifi miniatures for them! And don't get me started on the difficulty of finding a suitable head donor for a Batarian...

On the back burner:

ROTPOTA - going onto the backburner for now, because that's where it's most likely to get worked on when it distracts me from a main project! Although admittedly, between finishing the draft of this post and it actually hitting the internet, I've since re-watched the first (modern) film, so we'll see if that affects my future decisions on what to paint!

Nerdmarines - 3 minis to paint, but 2 are vehicles. Might get some love between larger projects, but we'll see...

Everything else - if you've read this blog more than once, you'll know my hobby preferences are like that of a magpie, so the occasional Doctor Who miniature (or maybe the Deadpool mini I got for Christmas) will probably sneak in here and there! 

Path to Glory Updated for 2014!

Many, many (many!) moons ago, I decided that I was going to update the Path to Glory rules and play some low model count games. As you'll note if you followed that link, that was in fact over 2 years ago (and in fact, the draft of this blog post where I was determined to actually get round to doing it was from February of this year). But now, the stars have aligned, and I've finally done it (well, updated the rules. Still need to play some games).

This style of skirmish war gaming is to my generation what oldhammer is to everyone else (and anyway,  was inspired by nostalgia for the old Realm of Chaos books), so I fancied bringing it up to date. Of course, all content is copyright and tm Games Workshop, but I'm rearranging it a bit to suit my needs! If we're feeling exceptionally fancy, we might say that its a post-modern take on an established mini-game set in the Warhammer setting, but that be a little grandiose!

As you may or may not remember Path to Glory has had a couple of incarnations: the original, printed over the course of a couple of months in White Dwarf's heyday (remember, when there were articles that inspired you to pick up your paints or your modelling tools?), and the more recent redo, that I really need to look up dates/issue numbers for [edit - came out around the same time as the 7th edition Warriors of Chaos book]

The former was spiritually more similar to the original Realm of Chaos warbands rules, with its mix of Chaos Warriors, Beastmen and monsters, whereas the latter, although more streamlined in terms of balance and equipment selection, was more restrictive in model selection, as warbands could only comprise of models from the Warriors of Chaos Army Book (as by this point in time, Chaos had been split into three separate armies for WFB) - although it's better for a player not to have to buy three separate books to play a mini game, I'm all for the 'oldschool' feel of the original rules, so will be using these as my guideline.

Essentially, this set of rules is 90% the same as those originally produced by Anthony Reynolds (cheers for doing all the hard work!), with the balance of the latter release (and the addition of the Forsaken troop type) overlaid over the tables of the original, and then forced through a sieve to bring it from 7th to 8th edition (by someone who last actually played a game during 6th...)

I'm not going to claim that I'm doing this now to tie-in with the Endtimes, although I can think of worse ways to go about it than to split a box of Putrid Blightkings with a few buddies and play a mini campaign representing several Nurgle champions rallying warbands to join Whatsisface the Mighty's horde as they march South to sack Kislev… Truth be told, it’s a combination of factors - I’ve been looking for something small scale that I could actually get a game of in while my attention span lasted, mixed with a Corehammer post about looking for something fun [may not actually be about looking for something fun, but that's the message I took from it looking back...], crossed with having a series of Coach and Train journeys down Portsmouth way giving me several hours with a notebook and smartphone to actually crack on with the rules! So also, before anyone complains about any formatting issues, this update was written almost entirely on my iphone, using a somewhat limited app, so it’s a miracle there’s anything to share at all...

Less rambling, more links to documents to allow people to play an updated skirmish campaign featuring Chaos Warbands duking it out in the Northern Wastes:

Google Doc available here

I was originally going to have it available just as a long, rambling blog post, but unfortunately originally being written in an iphone app, the only way I could seem to transfer it to my laptop without screwing all the formatting and destroying all of the carefully constructed tables (of which there are many) was to host it as a Google Doc, so it's probably most straightforward just to offer the link rather than trying to transfer it to yet another program!

So, presumably you've read through the entire document, and are thinking what else is there we need? Off the top of my head, the first thing would be some scenarios, although the 5 listed in the later Path to Glory Packet would be a good start, as well as the fact that pretty much any scenario from Mordheim or Warhammer Skirmish/Warbands could be fairly easily adapted... Ideas for a narrative campaign might be fun too, something along the lines of interspersing a straightforward campaign with the occasional special scenario, whereby the competing Champions get together for a multiplayer bash, the winner of which is rewarded with a special artefact or boon (if you were going Storm of Chaos era, it could even be accruing the dread artefacts of Chaos needed to proclaim themselves the next Everchosen...)



Final thought: 

I borrowed and mashed up these rules for my own purposes, so feel free to do the same! If you do though, drop me a line (either by leaving a comment here or emailing me at myincubliss [at] gmail [dot] com), because I'd love to see!

Third Anniversary, and 2013 in review...

Wow, so this little irregularly-updated corner of the internet turns 3 today!

2013 was a funny old year for me personally, managing to contain both the highest of highs (getting married! Honeymooning!) and the lowest of lows, and because of this was fairly quiet hobby and blogging wise. I mean, I only managed 27 posts last year, an average of one a fortnight. I'd planned (and prepped miniatures for) a Doctor Who post to tie in with the Christmas Day episode, but alas I didn't get to actually paint them, and thus there were no posts at all in December. I mean, the thing is, I'm not any less geeky than usual - here's a picture of our headboard currently:

(I dug out some old survivor miniatures to use as alternate playing pieces in a family game of Zombies over Christmas, which are currently living in the bedroom until I get around to re-packing them)

I think part of the problem on the lack of posts front is my tendency to only post on completion of something, which when crossed with my tendency to get easily distracted and flit from project to project leads to a folder of unpublished pictures of projects that are half-finished that 'I'll get around to finishing one day', like stripping Batman Heroclix, a set of Chaos themed scatter terrain and a set of wip pictures of my old-school influenced Chaos Spawn conversion that has been sat undercoated for at least half a year now... Resolution - post what I do as I do it, which will hopefully keep momentum high...

As is now traditional, I got a White Dwarf subscription for Christmas from my good lady wife, the exclusive miniature for which is this rather nice vampire-hunting dwarf, which leaves 2013's tally at:

25 vs 441 = -416

Daaaaaaaaaaamn.

2013: -416 (25 painted)
2012: -103 (68 painted)
2011: -173 (122 painted)

The less said about that the better, I suppose - although this year's massive minus is mostly (entirely) due to stocking up on lovely multi-part plastic kits at Salute for my ASOIAF project (and I'm sure I'll pick up a couple more boxes this year to make sure that I definitely have enough bits...)

On the Christmas front, I also got some paintbrushes from one of our friends that works with my wife, which I thought was rather sweet of her (and I guess shows that my nerdity isn't as subtle as you might otherwise think):

Looking at last year's review post, let's see how wildly inaccurate my predictions for projects for the coming year were:

Path to Glory: As mentioned earlier this post, my Chaos Spawn conversion is done (but just not posted), and the entire warband has been sat undercoated waiting for my attention to swing back their way. I've got a set of half-finished Chaos Wastes scatter terrain to go with them too, that match my previously completed set of generic rocky terrain so as to be able to play some games... You'd think that the low model count needed to be able to start playing games would be a good incentive to get them finished, but hey, go figure...

Batman: What do they even paint the more recent Heroclix figures with? I've had a bunch sat in the stripping pot getting the occasional scrub for what feels like an age, and there's largely no less paint on them than the day I bought them (they are however exceptionally clean). Again, low model count needed, so it would only take a tiny, tiny amount of focus in order to have a useable set of figures...

Zombieslayer/Slayers: One day. gadget, one day... Potentially if (as rumours suggest) the next edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle has a starter box containing Empire, that might kickstart this project, or if I get a chance to read the three latest Gotrek and Felix books that I've got waiting, but until then it stays on the backburner...

Star Wars: Again, one day, gadget, one day. Curse my tiny attention span! There's plenty of Star Wars media on the way though, so I may end up making some progress in the future...


Other bits and bobs:

I painted a number of generic fantasy miniatures, but other than that all my predictions were wildly inaccurate.

Projects for the coming year (aka the framework for next year's year in review post):

As well as all of the aforementioned half finished projects that are only a few steps from completion and posting to little internet fanfare, my (planned) projects for 2014 are:

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones):

The project that got started after I said I wouldn't be starting an more projects - as previously mentioned (and you can potentially just about see in the previous picture), I've got a bunch of Lannisters painted, and an equivalent amount of House Stark troops converted just awaiting basing and undercoat. I've got boxes of miniatures and assorted bits set aside for this project, so it should be fairly easy to make progress (famous last words) - admittedly though, I have been fairly tempted to buy some bits to start converting some Wildlings, pretty much the only Westerosi force that I don't already have suitable miniatures for, but I think I'll be able to hold focus on the Staks versus Lannisters for now (although one day I'll get around to writing a blogpost outlining my general plans for the ASOIAF project...)

Dungeons and Dragons

Much delayed, but not forgotten...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The release of a new '...of the Planet of the Apes' film should hopefully inspire me to get back on track with my ROTPOTA project - I'll probably pick up an 'Aiko and Gorilla' from Bushido from GCT Miniatures (because that's a much hencher gorilla than the one I had previously bought), dig up or adapt a suitable skirmish ruleset and we're away!

Others:

The backburner projects are still there: Halo, Three Kingdoms, Doctor Who, Blood Bowl, and all the rest - although as we've seen, listing something as 'not a priority for the near future' seems to be the way to ensure that it gets some love when it comes to my hobby focus... I also sporadically get the urge to go back and try and rewrite the set of rules I was going to use for the Zombie project, that were lost when my laptop wiped a couple of years back, but that would involve literally starting from scratch...

I should also hopefully finish the display board that I mentioned in my previous post in the near future, which will allow me to start posting some more visually appealing pictures of painted miniatures (when I get around to actually finishing some, hyuck huck...)

Last but not least, when we were putting up our (artificial) Christmas Tree, one of the branches fell off:

Bad news for Christmas, but good news for wargaming craft supplies - my wife agreed that we could just have that side of the tree facing the wall, and I now have the means to experiment with making wargaming trees out of leftover bits of Christmas Tree...