2013 Wrap Up

Well, what I had hoped to be The Year of Done turned into The Year of Minimal Hobby Activity. I didn't do lot of painting or gaming this year. The most played game was X-Wing due to the ease of set up and my childrens' interest in the setting. I received my copy of OGRE and love it and if it weren't for the fact that I expect to get my Robotech kickstarter box sometime in 2014 I would get some OGRE miniatures.

Painting total for the year is a paltry 22. Between getting ready to retire from active duty, starting the job, and a general downturn in playing time I just really haven't been motivated to paint anything.  Here's what was finished:

Running Total: 22

4 Orc Guards (Dreadball)
1 Rebel Minis Merka V
8 GZG UNSC Troopers
3 GZG Gun Spider Robot Drone Thingies
6 Goblin Jacks (Dreadball)

Mostly 15mm this time around, no terrain. I'll post the consolidated picture later as I don't like the way the mobile app formats photos for posting.

For 2014, who knows? I'm *this* close to being done with Kyra and Lavawrath and plan to finish them soon if only out of spite. Robotech, when it arrives, will hopefully spur some activity as I'll have an additional 100 figures to add to the To Do List. In the mean time I think I'll return to sci-fi figures. I've got some starships that need doing or maybe back to my pile of unassembled CAVs. Then of course there are the piles of 15mm figures...

Wishing you all an enjoyable and prosperous new year!

Edit: Finally got around to taking the pictures:

2012 Wrap Up

Well, here we are again. Time for the Fifth Annual Sergeant Crunch's Miniature Madness Annual Wrap-Up post. Five years I've had this blog now though it doesn't seem like it. Thanks to all my readers for keeping up with my misadventures despite my spotty posting habits.

This year saw an overall increase in my gaming time and severe lack of motivation to paint. I did get some projects done and off the To-Do list though, but picked up a number of new ones. I'm at kind of a wierd place where I want more miniatures, but don't want to buy more until what I have is close to be finished. I've also delved more into board games for their ability to play out of the box without as much work to painting and building terrain. Of course this means that if I bought no other miniatures and painted at an average of one per day, I could conceivably run out of miniatures to paint by December 2013. I don't see this happening.

I've gotten two copies of Dreadball (miscommunication between my wife and I around Thanksgiving, totally my fault), X-Wing and its first wave expansions, and have a copy of  OGRE: Designer's Edition on order via that game's Kickstarter campaign. Of these X-Wing is the only one I've played yet due to it being truly ready out of the box. The figures are painted and the rules are extremely easy to learn. When I bought the core box set the boys and I were making TIE Fighter fly-by sounds and going pew-pew in minutes. What was pleasantly surprising is the the minis look good enough out of the box to not require immediate repainting, though some folks out there have taken their figures to the next level. I'm not going there, I like that I don't have to do anything with them except assemble the base.

I did paint a handful of CAV models in 2012, mostly because I have been playing CAV2 again with another Mech-Head. Might even go back to RCON to play in the CAV2 tournament being organized. Other than that though, my painting has been all over the place as usual. I started the year with finishing my Warmachine starter, then moved on to star ships, then 15s, then CAV, then Dreadball. Throw in some terrain projects for good measure. I find myself in awe of the people who consistently churn out hundreds to over 1000 miniatures in a year. Maybe this will be my year as I am on the glide-path to retiring from military service.

This next year should be interesting as I'm planning on buying a laser cutter with tax return money. Watch this space for my exciting adventures with high-tech cutting devices. Eventually my projects with that will be made available for general purchase. My first goal for the year though is to finish the Orc team for Dreadball so I can actually play it. I've had it for about a month now but have yet to actually play it with anyone. Thankfully OGRE will be more amenable to out-box play as the 2.5D models will just need to be punched out and slide together. Though it may take me a week to punch out all the counters from the Kickstarter version. I'm also looking forward to the second wave of X-Wing expansion models, particularly the Millennium Falcon and Slave 1. The fun part is going to be convincing my wife that purchasing Combat Wombat's Death Star trench tiles is a good idea.

The total model count for the year is 40 models, not including the X-Wing figures (I just included them so they wouldn't feel left out...and they look cool).  Here's the list:

1 Warmachine Charger
1 Shield Generator/Power Plant
16 GZG UNSC Light Troopers
1 Japanese Nagato Carrier
1 Fed Dreadnought
1 Fed Battlecruiser
1 Black Lightning Dictator 60
1 Atlas hexagon high-rise

3 stands Armored Heavy Mortar Teams (CAV)

2 Kraken (CAV)

1 Walther's Car Shop

2 Human Guards (Dreadball)

1 Referee (Dreadball)

4 Human Jacks (Dreadball)

4 Human Strikers (Dreadball)

 Gah! White is such a pain to photograph

 I find this amusing, the RefBot has eyes in the back of its head.

 Tremble before my mad freehand numbering skills.

So, there they are. I'm looking forward to what 2013 brings. May your games be fun and paint bottles never dry out.

2011 Wrap Up

Here we are, another year down and another annual wrap-up post. Been a few changes around the blog this year, first and foremost a major jump in followers and subscribers. This was mostly because I started spreading the word a little more and getting added to a few blog rolls, I've enjoyed the comments that have been left and hope next year to get some more followers, though to be honest with accumulators I have no idea what the actual number of people reading my little corner of the Web is. This year also saw the addition of a few pages to isolate the pictures, because sometimes people are just looking for eye candy or to see how somebody else painted the mini they're working on.

RL provided a number of distractors that kept the total low for the year. I was still deployed in Iraq at the beginning of the year, had a hard time getting back into the swing of things after returning, then we moved back to Texas, and lately my current position has demanded a lot of my time. The next year is looking good though and I hope to put a major dent in the To-Do List.

2011 saw a total of 43 miniatures getting painted. Here's the list (click the link for the post with pics of the individual model(s)):

2 Cold Navy Mauridian Ven'Tara carriers
8 Khurasan Parasachnid Bioweapons
8 Khurasan Mekanoid Grenadier
10 Khurasan Felid Warriors
3 Cold Navy Mauridian Ba'Rada frigates
1 GZG Advance Heavy Grav Tank
1 Basestar (Ravenstar Studios)
1 Candy, Anime Heroine (Chronoscope)
1 Klingon C8 Dreadnought (ADB)
4 GZG UNSC infantry
1 Lancer warjack (Privateer Press)
1 pStryker (Privateer Press)
1 Ironclad (Privateer Press)
1 Fed New Light Cruiser (ADB)

(click for a larger image)

What's odd is that almost everything that I bought in 2011 was painted in 2011. My main goals for 2012 is to finish what 15mm figures and starship models that I already have and to game more often. There's a group of Rebel Minis Earth Force figures on there way to me courtesy of Rebel's Christmas 20% off sale. The Charger is that last of the Warmachine figures I need and will be done hopefully next week, leading to my start in that game. I think most of this years purchases will be either expansions for rules I have, terrain pieces, or supplies. One of the things I'm looking at doing is switching over to artist's acrylics for most of my workhorse colors rather than hobby paints. I still enjoy using Reaper's paints, but it's much easier for me to hop over to Hobby Lobby than it is to wait for the mail. I'll still be using the hobby paints for some specialist applications though, especially skin tones as Reaper's MSP skin tones can't be beat as far as I'm concerned. Finally, I plan to finish my background setting that will become the basis for my Tomorrow's War and Starmada games. Hopefully Hestia become a living, vibrant place in which many glorious battles will be fought.

On the gaming front I seem to have settled down to four (maybe five) games. The kids have been enjoying a set of one page fantasy skirmish rules I found. We've also been playing Starmada and Klingon Armada from Majestic 12 Games. The 15mm has been settled on Tomorrow's War from Ambush Alley Games, just need to get my forces rounded out a little more to really get started on that game. Then there's Warmachine, which a co-worker talked me into. The "maybe" is Silent Death. I've had this game sitting around for a couple years now and have only tried it out once using the Star Wars conversion. I really want to get this one out sometime soon. Who knows, maybe my Macross conversion to that system might finally see the day of light. Going to need to order lots of gashapon for that though.

CAV has sadly fallen by the wayside, though as a game system it still occupies the bulk of my collection. I'll still get a game of CAV2 in here or there, but I doubt I'll be actively seeking to convert players or play CAV:SO if that actually sees the day of light. I think this is the first year that I have not painted a CAV minis since I started playing that game. It's a shame really, I still love the models, it's just hard to justify painting them if I'm not actively playing it. A number of them will probably get put into 15mm games, but that may result in repainting some of them to match the 15mm forces.

All that said, good luck to all in the New Year!

Annual Recap

Ok, I know I'm 34 days behind on this, but on New Year's Day I was still in Iraq.  At any rate, here is the picture of everything I managed to accomplish in 2010, well four months of it at least.  These were all painted in the period from January to April, which is when I stopped hobby projects in order to make sure I had everything ready to deploy.  21 miniatures isn't bad I guess given my previous rates and that my hand was in a splint for most of them.

Not the steadiest of photos, I know, but it gets the point across.  Of note in this lot are a couple of firsts.  First resin pieces (the Mauridians) and my first dipped figure (the Warlord Mercenary Warrior).  I'll be further exploring the dip later this year as I intend to attempt to finish a good number of forces that have been sitting around a while, namely Warlord. Don't know that I'll take up regular gaming with those rules, but would just like to have the figures done.

I also have some stuff to add to the To-Do List with Christmas additions, and will probably be reorganizing the list some.  I don't play Federation Commander, preferring the Klingon Armada rules for my Trek fix. 28mm figures will get lumped by genre rather than game as I don't see myself doing much with 28mm in the future other than painting figures that catch my fancy. 6mm will probably stay as is, though I doubt I'll be playing FWC, in favor of Tomorrow's War.

While I was gone, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm done with newer versions of CAV and will be diverting to 15mm sci-fi.  I'll still play CAV2 around the house and finish the minis I do have, but doubt I'll be buying anymore CAV products.  It looks like my gaming is settling around 15mm and starship gaming.  Though I did download Hordes of the Things to see if the boys liked it. (They want their own armies now having completed some miniatures in my absence.)  Who knows, by playing Tomorrow's War and Starmada, I might be able to find other players when I leave the house!

So, fare thee well 2010, and wishes for lots of painting and gaming for 2011!

2009 Wrap Up

OK, so I meant to do this on the 1st, didn't take the pictures until yesterday, and then Dr. Who was on. So here we are, the beginning of a new year. Doing the end of year wrap for 2008 seemed like a good idea so I thought I'd make it a regular event. Overall, 2009 was a good year for me in regards of painting, I got a lot done. For gaming, not so much. I've picked up a few new games over the year, but of them I've only played Starmada, which seems to be my new obsession. I still like CAV, but Starmada is so much easier to pull out on a whim and play.

Over the course of 2009 I managed to paint 95 items, whether figures or terrain pieces, not bad considering that I pretty much wasn't home at all for the first four months and I spent November in a cast on my dominant arm. Toward the end of the year I was hoping to get 100 items done, but it didn't quite happen, not the end of the world. (Supposedly that's in 2012.)

Enough of me rambling on, yall want to see the pictures. Click on any picture for a larger version of the same.

First, the collective photos, a year in minis:





You'll notice later on that I forgot to take pictures of the Federation and Klingon ships. I did have pictures of them, the first batch were too dark, and apparently I forgot to get the Starfleet Universe ships out there. I'm not getting them back out for pictures, yesterday was bad luck for starship minis, I had to repair four stands with brass rod. I really need to change to the jewelry clasp fitting method or magnet stand adaptors.

So first, the two (count 'em to be sure) 28mm figs I painted this year. A Nova Corporate Security Guard (this one I received as a freebie in a class with Robert Cruse in 2006 when this was still a prototype AICOM miniature) and the newest version of Sara the Seeress. Both are from Reaper Miniatures.



Next up are the four CAV miniatures I painted. Seems odd that of the 95 items I painted this year, only four were for CAV. Probably due to the lack of a regular opponent and a general malaise regarding the game in general. I still think it's a great game, but the usual discussions about it on the discussion boards are getting tiresome. This year I painted a Gladiator II, a Centurion, a Regent, and a Kikyu. The Gladiator and Centurion were the beginning of a foray into a Templar force for my Rach to beat up on and the other two were an expansion of Aprile's Terran force.



Next up are the Silent Death fighters. I originally picked this game up for two reasons, to play Star Wars dogfights and Macross dogfights. Have yet to do either for various reasons. No real reason for the Star Wars fights yet, other than I haven't bought any minis to do so. Macross is more perplexing situation. Figures are difficult to come by. I could use Unseen Battletech figures for a the original Valkyries, but I have yet to find 1:300 or 1:285 Regult battle pods or Tri-fighters. For more accuracy I could go with gashapon, but that gets restrictive price wise and again, the focus is on the Veritechs and not so much the bad guys. If I'm looking in the wrong place please speak up and let me know. Anyway, I bought the game, painted the minis and have played it twice. Not really a complex game, I've just been really focused on trying to paint things. They will probably perform double duty as fighter flight markers for Starmada.



Ah, Dark Realm Miniatures. They are great little 6mm figures. Never finished painting the army like I was supposed to. The time frame I had originally planned to paint them was pre-empted by me needing to go on several extended trips. I got back, finished what stands I had started and that was it. I have about four times more what's shown to finish. Might get it done in 2010 might not. Don't really have an opponent so no big rush. Though it would be nice to have them done.



That brings me to my current obsession of starship combat gaming. I purchased Starmada in November and have been a happy geek since. I'd been looking for a starship game for a while and had been waffling back and forth between a couple different systems. When Klingon Armada was released it tipped my hand towards Starmada, which had been a strong contender from the beginning. Great game, easy to learn, easy to teach, my wife likes playing it (big bonus here, means I always have an opponent if she's not busy with school work), and it's sci-fi which means I'll actually get around to painting it. I've been working mostly with Ground Zero Games and Amarillo Design Bureau ships lately, but I have some more Mauridians from the Cold Navy line on the way, with further fleet expansions planned. Oh and another bonus to starships, if you're not planning an extravagant paint scheme, they paint up fast.

So here's the first of the GZG fleets, the Neu Swabian League. I don't know what it is with this fleet but I simply can not get a decent picture that accurately shows the coloring. It's a light gray with field green panels. There is a battleship, a battlecruiser, escort carrier, two escort cruisers, two missile destroyers, two destroyers, three corvettes, and one flight each of light and heavy fighters (all the new construction designs).



I've only finished two destroyers for the FSE, also the new designs. I have remaining (as seen in the sidebar) and almost identical fleet to the NSL, substituting heavy destroyers for missile destoryers. The main differences between the two fleets will be armament. The NSL used ranged-based ROF lasers while the FSE uses continuous beam types. Also, the NSL "heavy weapons" are energy torpedoes while the FSE relies more on physical warheads that track to the target (think SFB drones, but easier to keep track of).



Finally for the ships, this was a freebie with my last GZG order (part of their Christmas special). It's a Merrino livestock transport. I'll just be using it as a general merchant ship that for some reason is constantly being raided by one side or the other.



That does it for miniatures, now for the terrain. The first one has been posted here before, but I'm dang proud of it just because of how awesome it looks in games. I'll be able to do some proper urban fights using CAV with a few more similar buildings.



Next up are a bunch of 6mm buildings from JR miniatures. I think these are discontinued and rightly so. They are a poured stone of some sort and the molds are horrible. I've had these for a few years now, originally bought for CAV, but before I had any appreciable amount of 6mm figs. They work "OK" for CAV, but not really. Been working on them on and off just to get them done.



And finally, a trio of styrofoam ball planets I made for use with Starmada. Yes, I know gas giants are larger than their rocky brethren, but I see them as abstracts, the size will be denoted with a marker on the map.



So that's it, what I've done in 2009. The complete list is as follows:

1 Gladiator II (CAV)
2 Djinn (SD and FWC)
4 Jambiya (SD and FWC)
4 Blizzard (SD)
1 Square High Rise (CAV terrain)
4 Pit Viper (SD)
2 Salamander (SD)
1 Hellbender (SD)
2 Thunderbird (SD)
4 Spirit Rider (SD)
4 Dart (SD)
2 Fed light cruisers (FC)
1 Pax Arcadian CO stand (FWC)
1 Pax Arcadian HQ stand (FWC)
4 Pax Arcadian Infantry stands (FWC)
4 Pax Arcadian AT Weapons stands (FWC)
4 Pax Arcadian Buggies stands (FWC)
4 Pax Arcadian Jackhammers (FWC)
1 Centurion (CAV)
1 Sarah the Seeress (Reaper DHL)
14 JR Miniatures 6mm buildings
1 NOVA Corporate Security Guard (5150)
1 Kikyu (CAV)
1 Regent (CAV)
1 Lance Electra (SD)
2 Talon (SD)
2 Klingon F5 frigates (FC/SAE)
2 Klingon D6 heavy cruisers (FC/SAE)
2 Klingon D7 battlecruisers (FC/SAE)
2 GZG NSL (new) escort cruisers (SAE)
2 GZG NSL (new) Lutzow-class destroyers (SAE)
3 GZG NSL (new) corvettes (SAE)
1 GZG NSL (new) Battleship (SAE)
1 GZG NSL (new) Battlecruiser (SAE)
3 Planet (SAE)
1 GZG NSL (new) Escort Carrier (SAE)
1 GZG NSL Light Fighter (SAE)
1 GZG NSL Heavy Fighter (SAE)
2 GZG NSL (new) Missile Destroyer
1 GZG Merino Livestock Transport
2 GZG FSE Thetis Destroyer

Time to update the sidebar. Dang but doesn't it look depressing when all I have is the To-Do list up there.

Yall have a good year and may your paints not dry out and your dice come up 6's.

What I Accomplished in 2008

Here are a couple pictures of what I managed to get painted, or assembled in the case of paper buildings, in 2008. Some of the miniatures (Dana Murphy, the Hubries, Legendary Encounters Minotaur) were already painted, just needed to be rebased. I apologize if the pics are a bit dark, I just realized that I haven't loaded any photo editing software on either of our new computers.



1 Gunslinger (CAV)
7 Hubries (DRM)
1 Kikyu (CAV)
1 Czar (CAV)
NCC-1700 USS Constitution CA (FedCom)
NCC-312 USS T. Roosevelt FF (FedCom)
Sadie (b) (Hasslefree Miniatures)
5 stands Andrayada Infantry (DRM)
5 stands CAV infantry with heavy weapons
2 Jovian Chronicles frigates
2 Tigers (CAV)
1 Jaguar (CAV)
1 Puma (CAV)
8 stands NAC power armor (GZG)
5 Pig Iron infantry for Star Army
1 Warlord Reven Bull Orc Warrior
3 GZG Kivruzh medium hovertanks (6mm)
1 LE Minotaur (rebase for Warlord)
Biker Chick Sophie
1 Dana Murphy rebased
Dictator 60 repaint (CAV)
Dictator 70 (CAV)