Personal Challenge Update

 Hi!

Just a quick update this morning as we're off to the Lake District for a wedding so I'll not have chance to update until next week and I figured it was high time I updated my Personal Challenge project log!

First up, I've managed to grab myself an incomplete copy of 2nd edition 40k for the princely sum of £2.99. It's got Codex Imperialis, Wargear in perfect nick and lots of the templates, cards and whatnot from both the original box set and Dark Millennium. There's still lots of odds and ends to source including the original rulebook but as it's a slow burn project, I'm not too bothered as I'll pick up the stuff I need when I see them.

As I've already mentioned, I've been slowly basing up the cardboard ruins from the original box and they made a bit of an appearance in the battle report in my last blog post:

They're based on mounting card with EVA foam used to make the stone slabs and a bit of green flock to match the green tables of yore. I've still got loads more of the terrain to finish but I must admit its pretty tedious but I'll complete it when I can. I used a grey artists marker to go over the white edges of the cardboard which does improve the look somewhat too.

Figures wise, I already have a load of the original mono pose Orks and Gretchin from the original set that I traded a chap in Singapore some old plastic Battletech stuff many moons ago and while I don't have the original 20 Orks or 40 Gretchin, I've got enough to keep me entertained and create a decent sized Ork warband.

I'm supplementing the originals with some of the newer plastics which I've had lying around for ages (the older stuff is far more fun to paint by the by!)

As for the forces of the Imperium, I've already painted up some of the EM-4 Miniatures Space Rangers that are nice and cheap and have the same monopose charm as the old Space Marines so will be painting some more when I get the chance to flesh out my two squads of Marines.

Having progressed thus far, I must admit that I have mixed feelings about the project. On the one hand, its been great fun and reminding me of those nostalgic days of the 90's when I was playing 2nd edition at my friends at high school but on the other hand, I'm also beginning to wonder if I should select a different game as an army focus.

Games Workshop has a huge following and 2nd edition has been seeing fresh love from many quarters of both the Oldhammer community and Youtubers alike but there are so many other great games that nobody plays with fascinating forces that were great fun back when they were released but now largely forgotten apart from by nerds like me who still pore over the old books and have the odd miniature for sitting painted in the cabinet. What about bringing some notice to these fine games that are sadly gone but still worthy of a bit of love?

A fraction of my rulebook collection

I'm not sure what to do at the moment as I do wish to get my solo 2nd edition challenge completed but think I may modify it somewhat so I end up with a painted approximation of the original game so I can play some retro 40k when I want but at the same time feel that once I have that objective done, I want to move onto looking at doing something similar with other games that have fallen by the wayside.

Tiny Void Junker Troops

With this in mind, I've been cracking on with my tiny troops Void painting and have got enough stuff painted up to play a game or two so will post a battle report and review of Void when I get back from my mini holiday and with the tiny troops it will at least be a visual representation of the game rather than using counters which is always more pleasing.

Moving forward, I think I'm going to construct tiny troops for each of my long forgotten games so that I can showcase how each plays and if any really catches my imagination, I aim to paint up a squad or two of a force from them and incorporate them into my own reimagined Imperium so that the amazing creativity of the original game designers, artists and sculptors who produced them can live on in spirit and once again these long lost games will see use!

I've got an entire shelf of rulebooks of old and forgotten games, newer indie stuff and file after file of PDF's for games that really deserve some love so we shall see what I can come up with in the coming months and I've also got 2nd edition of Planet 28 to look forward to which is fast becoming my game of choice and allowing me to incorporate all the old and random figures in my ramshackle collection into small warbands that are getting regular use.

I guess I've rambled on enough and really should be getting on with the more important job of packing the car so until next time, All the best and if there's an old game you'd like to see featured in tiny troop battle, give me a shout and I'll see what I can do!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 25: Eldar Inspiration

 Hi!

I had hoped to be able to show my first completed Deathworld palm trees today but they are taking a lot longer to dry than expected (I suspect I added a bit too much water first to the glue and then the paint like a noob). Instead I thought I'd post up a few inspirational old school Eldar photos that I've found whilst perusing the interwebs.

First up, there's some classic Eldar armies from 1st/2nd edition from the pages of White Dwarf:

I vividly recall gazing at this particular warband for ages and bemoaning the fact that I couldn't paint that well back in the early 90's.

It's interesting that in both these armies, the lowly Guardians have been largely replaced by Aspect Warriors. I'm a big fan of Guardians and want to have a few more than are shown in these examples though and love the old grav platform heavy weapons. 

I suspect that folks love Eldar because you can really go to town with colour choices though...

Next up, there's the army centre pieces, the Dreadnoughts and War Walkers:

I love the dark blue and white combination but shudder to think about how to get such a smooth finish but the contrasting colours look fantastic, especially with the many sigils and runes!

War Robot! I remember having one of these back in the day, which came with one of the smaller drones! I think I have the bits to make another and may have to make it a priority for a sense of retro charm. I am tempted to see if I can get some of the new Eldar Dreadnought arms to make it a bit more dynamic though as the gun arm is a bit clunky compared to the sleek robot...

Aspect Warriors! I love the darker finish on some of these chaps as it gives them a more aggressive, sinister look to them which is rather different from the more usual dayglow style of Aspect Warriors.

I love the black/purple/red combo of the guy second from the left and may have to steal it for some pirates! 

Remember when the assorted 40k races had musicians? I think I've got one and will need to add a bard to my Eldar nobles retinue to record his exploits in heroic verse!

As with my other 40k stuff, I plan on shoehorning everything into my own version of The Imperium and having perused one or two other rulesets over the last couple of days, I have loads of ideas on how I can put together some interesting warbands so I'll need to see how I get on with this first batch and flesh out my existing stuff as I'm painfully aware that I've got lots of odd figures but nothing much to mesh them together into cohesive forces yet.

As it's just been announced that the lockdown is going to be running until at least mid February, I suspect I'll have a bit of time to get on to bulking out forces a bit but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 24: Blood Angel Space Marine

 Hi!

I've just finished painting a proxy Blood Angel Space Marine using the old EM4 Space Ranger figures!

Brother Blasius

Annoyingly the photo seems to have lost much of the highlights but I was going for a rather old school look with bright colours and quite like how he's turned out. 

Sadly I don't have an orangey red that would suit the 2nd edition colours and the reds I do have required many, many layers to get a smooth finish so I'm thinking of picking up some of the Coat D'Arms range which have many of the classic Citadel colours!

Again they're not the most detailed of sculpts and some of the detail is a bit soft, but for 51p each, they make excellent proxies for Space Marines, Nexus Power Armour, Union Heavy Infantry or whatever else you need some bulky power armoured chaps for.

The figures are pleasingly chunky too and loom over lighter equipped troops in a most effective manner. I've got enough of these guys to make a squad of ten with a bit of tweaking and look forward to painting some more of them.

I found this picture while perusing the interwebs and really like the combination of the brightly coloured marines and the utilitarian grey of their transports and may have to steal the idea for myself if I ever get around to painting vehicles!

I'm currently working on some more scenery with the use of some pipe cleaners, glue and filler so hope to be able to showcase some finished terrain in the next couple of days. I've also got Patrick Harpey from the original Flintloque set half finished so will need to get him finished too!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 23: Eldar

 Hi!

Here's the first of the stripped Oldhammer figures I spent a bit of time cleaning over the last day or so!

Old Eldar Gubbins

I still have a load of odds and ends to clean up, including more walker bits and a bunch of Harlequins. It's a random mix, most of which I picked up from a hobby shop in Gosport several years ago. They had been painted then primed black with a massively thick coat of paint and it eventually took soaking them in Dettol for several years and then cleaning with soapy water followed by nail polish remover to get off most of the leftover crap. 

They're not 100% clean but short of scouring them, I think I've got them looking as good as they're going to get. Sadly the arms and weapons from the hybrid metal/plastic guardians have gone missing so I'll need to source some replacements but I think I may end up using the new Eldar weapons from one of the boxed sets. 

Guardians

The last time I picked these guys up, I managed to paint a total of three of the Guardians before abandoning the project. Hopefully a different colour scheme will fix this and I'll end up with a decent little warband with a good assortment of walkers to back them up. 

I'm currently painting one of the EM4 plastic Space Ranger figures to see how I get on with him and seem to be meandering along quite nicely with the latest lockdown project, despite it going wildly off tangent into Oldhammer territory but as long as I'm enjoying it, that's the main thing!

I'm also finding myself eying up some of the more modern figures in other ranges including Beyond the Gates of Antares by Warlord and Deadzone by Mantic but thus far have remained strong and not bought anything! 

The prospect of just painting up all sorts of random odds and ends is keeping me motivated and I'm looking forward to getting more terrain made and it's looking like I'm going to have plenty of time to get stuff done as the lockdown doesn't seem to show much sign of easing yet...

In the meantime All the best and I'll post more stuff up tomorrow!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 21: Retro Terrain Part 1

Hi!

Here's the first of the terrain items that I've made after taking inspiration from the old How to Make Wargames Terrain!

It's a really simple piece consisting of an old instant chai can, some foamboard, cardboard and cocktail sticks. The vegetation is a mixture of cheap aquarium plants and paper.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out as it's got a lot of oldschool charm and after a bit of hesitation I went for a largely green base which actually turned out a lot nicer than I was expecting, giving a strong contrast between the grey, oranges and brown of the tower.

The model is based on a piece of pre-cut MDF that I picked up from Warbases a couple of years ago. I'm really enjoying making vegetation from pieces of paper too as it's rather therapeutic to paint, cut and shape the stuff. I plan on experimenting more to see what other types of terrain I can make from such simple materials.

Hopefully I can get my third Imperial trooper finished today and work on some more Flintloque stuff tomorrow and am keen to keep going with the retro terrain too!

I've also discovered a tub of oldschool figures sat under our sink that have been soaking in Dettol for some time and will see if I can get them properly stripped and see what I've got in the assorted bits and bobs. 

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 20: Terrain Making

 Hi!

I'm busily rummaging out some suitably old school bits and bobs to put together some cheap and cheerful scenery for my sci-fi projects.

As a handy reference, I'm using How to Build Wargames Terrain, the old GW book that came out during the height of the Red Period of Citadel and it's full of simple projects using easily obtainable materials and is a fantastic source of inspiration.

I'm a huge fan of the old 2nd edition scenery for 40k and whilst the projects featured in the book are towards the simple end of the spectrum, they look like great fun for a lockdown side project that only requires household supplies, packaging materials and some green flock.

If, by the end of the lockdown I have a decent selection of cheaply made scenery, all the better!

I've got the first piece almost finished and will get photos of it tomorrow once I have the base finished and will post my progress with the rest here but one of the things I like about the book is it encourages you to make stuff yourself rather than just buying plastic scenery and shows to some extent how much GW has changed over the years.

Another thing I like is that it's got some very modest suggestions for a good battlefield set up to get folks going, namely A Gently Sloping Hill, A Wood, A section of River, Stream, Crevasse or Ravine, An Area of Difficult Ground, Buildings and Ruins, An Area of Very Difficult Ground.

I hope to make all these odds and ends and the obligatory spiky cactus too and I'm also using lots of old pictures of GW's rather fantastic setups as inspiration as well!

Its going to be an interesting process as I've never had a green battlefield before but I am thinking of setting the campaign in an overgrown frontier world which has traces of lost civilisation as well as abandoned settlements and the odd carnivorous plant too.

I think I do need to purchase some pre-cut mdf for bases but otherwise, I'm fairly sure I have nearly everything I need in my flat at the moment so watch this space!

All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Day 19: Rogue Trader Mash Up

 Hi!

I've decided to delve back into my alternative 40k in a small way with a bit of a mash up of Rogue Trader, 40k 2nd Edition and Shadow War Armageddon along with a bit of bodging.

I've settled on using Shadow War Armageddon as it gives a streamlined version of 2nd edition 40k's rules along with squad sized warbands which simplifies things greatly but I don't plan on being too fussy about carefully following the armylists, instead using the spirit of Rogue Trader and using whatever I fancy!

I've got some odds and ends that I've been working on to keep with the style of the older era of GW where bright was right and green was the way to go with terrain too. I'll slowly add to the assorted stuff I have lying around and want to try to keep to the spirit of Oldhammer style but not sticking too closely to only using old school figures as they are getting a bit expensive to get hold of.

Instead I'm using whatever I have to hand, so for example, I have some of the plastic EM4 Miniatures troopers kicking around which will be making an appearance as Imperial troops:

Imperial Troopers

Whilst not the most detailed figures, they do paint up rather nicely and they're sculpted by Bob Naismith too so they do have some Citadel credentials. They do remind me of the old plastic Imperial Guard troops and they're cheap as chips too which is a real plus for those of us on a tight budget!

Having looked back at my blog over the last ten or so years, this sort of random project is what I've had most successes with and it certainly seems to be the sort of thing that folks are interested in reading and it will give me the chance to work on a wide variety of figures.

I also plan on using elements from several other game systems, rules and backgrounds. Primarily this will be Void 1.1, Kryomek and Vor: The Maelstrom but I have loads of other rules lurking in my collection that I hope to have a bit of a read through.

I really want to make some scenics of an old school nature as this really sets the scene and feel of things so I'm aiming to make some suitably 2nd edition gaming set ups. Its interesting to see how many MDF, resin or plastic kits which are available but I'm a firm believer of doing it myself and want to try making my own gubbins.

Having had a good rummage through my leadpile, I have a decent number of Orks and Eldar and an assortment of other odds and ends and will paint what I can and if something catches my eye, I may pick up the occasional bits and bobs and we shall see if I can't get a game or two going!

I'm going to keep going with the other assorted projects I have set myself too as the lockdown doesn't look like it's going anywhere for the foreseeable future so I may as well make the most of it. 

In the meantime, All the best! 

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 16: The Lure of Oldhammer

 Hi!

Today I find myself in a bit of a quandary. I'm really enjoying my current projects with progress being scattergun in style but for all that successful as I'm painting, sculpting and generally staying hobby productive and sane during this lockdown. 

But despite all this, I am finding myself perusing all manner of Oldhammer gubbins. Maybe it's just the siren song of seeing all the awesome blogs out there or wanting to relive the heady excitement of my teens but even though I've posted about wanting to move on from GW gubbins, I keep finding myself drawn back.

I'm loath to succumb to the temptation of going back to either 40k or Fantasy Battle but there's something compelling about all those brightly coloured miniatures, lush scenery and classic sculpts. Sadly the cost of such a project seems to be getting beyond my budget these days and the sheer amount of time and effort it would take for such an undertaking is also I suspect beyond me.

This isn't deterring me though as I find myself still sorely tempted! I wonder if other folks find themselves tempted by projects they know are beyond them but still have a bash at them. Is there a way of channelling this enthusiasm or do I need to just resist temptation and just keep cracking on with my own stuff?

The only way I can see to get around my quandary is to pick up a couple of odds and ends and try to paint them and see how I get on. Maybe I can shoehorn such a scheme into an existing project, be it turn a 40k themed warband into something for Stargrave or Star Mogul or try out some small fantasy side project for some retro fanboying...

At present I have enough to keep me entertained for a while but I shall see how things go and if I do cave in to the temptation, hopefully it will be of interest to folks!

Lockdown Day 6

Hi!

As promised, here's the progress I've made on my small Orky mob:

 Plastic Boyz

I went for a far more traditional bright colours for these 2nd edition starter set plastics and I have had so much fun painting them I can hardly believe it! I remember painting them back in the day and finding it an utterly thankless task as they are identical and frankly boring but now I'm wallowing in nostalgia for them and have loved painting up the two I have done so far.

So much so in fact, that I have got another four underway as I type! I doubt I'm going to do the same for the Gretchin that I have still got to paint but these guys have been a blast to paint thus far and I'm a little sad I don't have more.

Saying that, I do have a fair few of the original plastic Orks kicking around and a number of the new ones too so we shall see how I get on with painting them...

Scale Creep

It's not just been 2nd Edition 40k nostalgic waffling today either as I have managed to finally finish the construction of my largest Dwarven Land Ironclad thus far, the mighty Battle Forge:

You can never have too many guns!

It's a bit of a beast and I'm glad that I persevered with it but I think in future I'd make the forward set of tracks longer to make it look a bit more massive. I may also have gone a wee bit over the top with it's weapons as it sports a heavy turret and a fearsome broadside, not to mention a rear facing AA gun and a pair of fixed forward cannon too...

Still, I look forward to painting the beast and will post my progress with it and the rest of my Dwarf Landfleet over the coming week or so.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 5

Hi!

I'm a wee bit late posting todays update but I have been somewhat distracted binge watching Wild Wild Country on Netflix which was rather good tv!

But enough of that! Here's my latest addition to my painted gubbins:

La Spiga 

It's a rather ancient Wood Elf that I picked up back in the day from Macs Models in Edinburgh and painted pretty badly along with her compatriots. She eventually got cleaned and repainted as a Dark Elf for use with Flintloque.

I could have sworn the pack she originally came in was from Flintloque as La Spiga the infamous bandit but looking online, it appears she is from Harlequin, later Black Tree Design but the face is rather similar to the classic Flintloque Elves so I plan on using her along with her kin as Dark Elves in Catalucia, ready to slit a few Ferach throats!

In other news, I happened across some 2nd edition starter set Orks which are still on their sprues after 27 years!

Orky Boyz

I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon removing them from their sprues and cleaning them before priming the lot. I've since finished the first one and must say it was quite the nostalgia trip to work on them and I've really enjoyed the process of working on such simple figures that I fondly remember from my youth!

I'll post some pics of my progress tomorrow in the next stage of my Lockdown but it's got me really hankering after more old figures to work on as whilst the newer stuff is technically more advanced and realistically proportioned, the old stuff is just so much more fun to paint.

There's less detail to worry about and they are very sympathetic to bold paintjobs and look surprisingly good once finished.

We shall see how many I can finish before tomorrow evening but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 4

Hi!

Here's the latest addition to my fledgeling Orky kill team:

Ork and Gobbo

He's a bit of a blast from the past in the form of a monopose Gretchin plastic from the 2nd edition 40k box set. While pretty sparse on detail, he does paint up rather well and was great for cleansing my painting palette after the Ork and indeed the teeny Goblins.

I'm not sure I could bring myself to paint up all 40 of the originals that came in the box but can imagine chipping away at a few more over the coming weeks as they are actually rather nice little figures all told.

I recently stumbled over this pic showing some of my old Boyz that I painted a few years back:

Goffs

I think I prefer the newer style paintwork and have a better handle on how I want Ork skin tones to work now and will keep painting the odd Ork or two over the course of my Lockdown staycation so who knows, I may end up with a decent sized mob!

Retro Orks: Everyone needs a backbanner!

I doubt I'll end up with a mighty horde but I am quite enjoying working on something different now and then.

Hopefully my next post will be a bit of a battle report so I can take a break from all this painting but I have to put a few more odds and ends together before I can do that so in the meantime, All the best!

Harlequin and Wolf Chariots!

Hi!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I happened across my old Eldar gubbins and in a moment of madness decided to have a bash at painting them in retro 2nd edition technicolour magnificence!

 Harlequin!

I settled on a NMM finish but using all the old school techniques I had to make the little guy fit the classic imagery of my 2nd edition memories.

I even primed him white (which in hindsight was a total pain in the bum but did result in a pleasingly bright finish that I wouldn't have got with black). There's lots of washes on there too but it doesn't seem to show up too well on the pics but I am quite happy with how he turned out.

 So many jewels!

That's not all though! I also managed to paint my way through a trio of tiny wolf chariots for my 6mm Goblin army:

 Teeny tiny chariots

As with my previous post, the figures were primed black then drybrushed grey which brought out the details and allowed me to quickly paint up the little guys.

 The force so far

With a strong cavalry force now painted, I need to sort out some infantry, monsters and artillery, not to mention characters which need to be worked on to complete the force!

I'm really chuffed with the progress I've made with the little guys and am really enjoying painting the Irregular Miniatures range as while the unpainted metal is rather uninspiring looking, once that first drybrush is on, they really come to life and I'm seriously pondering picking up some Empire proxies for the Gobbos to fight and defend the borders of the Empire from whatever forces that wish to bring it low...

I've mentioned my Song of Blasters rules that I've been working on over the last couple of years and one of my latest addition is to do away with traditional rulers and go for measuring sticks instead.

Here's the movement measuring stick:

 Move!

Infantry generally moves half the length of the stick while infantry the full length while fast cavalry 1.5 or even 2 for very fast units. This seems to work quite well in 2mm, 6mm and 15mm scale with only a few small modifiers.

Next up, here's the shooting stick:

Dakka! Dakka! Dakka!

Unlike movement, shooting has a longer range with short range being one stick, medium 2 and long 3 and individual weapon rules allow for a deal of customisation. For example the Beam option allows the firer to roll to hit any unit the ruler touches which represents things like flamers or grape shot.

The sticks are jumbo lolly sticks and measure 15cm which is very handy when it comes to measuring stuff and I am thinking of making some themed ones for my Goblins and more for my Imperial troops and Vongola ironclads!

It's interesting how simplifying rules down has resulted in a far more pleasing game than making things over granular and complex. I've found myself rather inspired by the likes of Epic 40k which has one of the best systems I've played for years and will continue to post the odd ruminations on the rules as I go so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!