6mm Fantasy Shenanigans

 Hi!

As promised in my last post, I've been footling about with some 6mm scale fantasy bits and bobs.

I've become quite a fan of creating small gaming boards using cheap pinboards and I've been wanting to make a rich green one for a while and decided that it was high time to get it finished. 

The base is a WHSmith's pinboard that measures 39cm by 59cm which I got for 75% off when a local store was closing down and cost £2.50. A cheap tube of green acrylic set me back another £1.99 and bobs your uncle! I'd initially intended on using either a static grass sheet or flock but thought it may warp the cork board so settled on just painting it all.

A bit of splotching, drybrushing and dabbing of assorted greens and browns and it looks pretty decent.

With the addition of my polystyrene egg trees and a small dark age farm produced by Irregular Miniatures that I was gifted a good fifteen years ago, I've got the beginnings of a decent little layout.

Further rummagings have turned up some Irregular Miniatures Wood Elves that was part of the lot that I was gifted back in the day and I find myslelf with the beginnings of a nice little army. I've got enough to make a decent sized force for Dragon Rampant and still have a bunch of Orcs to use as an opposition.

Sadly the photo's don't do the figures justice as they're really nice little sculpts once they've got a coat of paint on them and I'm thinking of slowly adding to the collection with some other figures from Irregular at some point. The bases are 15mm by 30mm and made from cardboard.

I've rather enjoyed putting together this little project and will try to get the remaining figures painted up in the coming weeks and hope to add some more scenery too and am aiming towards making it in the style of classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle but tiny so we shall see how I get on.

My next post should have some completed 15mm scale gubbins as well as further musings on some wild west ideas that I've got floating about again.

In the meantime, All the best!

Badlands Skirmish

Hi!

After my angry review of the other day, I managed to get a quick game of a Song of Blasters using my Epic scaled Ultramarines versus some Eldar.

I've also been working on getting some new scenery put together in the form of some rock columns to add a bit of height to my setup.

 Early Deployment

The Imperials had a more mobile force consisting of several tactical squads mounted in Rhinos and a Landspeeder to give a bit of mobile punch to the patrol and the Imperial forces quickly took control of the settlement in the centre of the board and pushed forward towards the Eldar positions.

Some poor activation rolls saw the Eldar flank refusing to move off the hill which left the Warlock and his Guardians somewhat exposed with just a Falcon grav tank to support them. The Landspeeder had hurtled up the flank and hit the tank with a heavy plasma gun but only succeeded in damaging it and in return the Falcons Brightlance sent the skimmer crashing to the ground in flames.

At this point it became clear that the Eldar had the edge in ranged firepower with the Falcon, Dark Reapers and Warlock able to hit the Marines before their shorter range Bolters could be brought to bare and if it hadn't been for the use of their transports as a shield, the Ultramarines would have been in for a rough day.

The Dark Reapers on the flank blow up a squad of Marines 

Fortunately for the Marines, their transports sacrifice saw them able to get close enough to the Eldar to let rip with their bolters and the lithe Guardians were shredded in a storm of explosive shells.

At this point, the Eldar were forced to retreat having lost most of their infantry but the Ultramarines vehicles were all wrecked apart from the command Rhino.

 The Imperial Rhino's cook off following Brightlance strikes and Warlock Powers

I'm rather enjoying playing very small games in 6mm scale and think I may have some more skirmishes to play but do need to look at my rules a bit further to make things run a bit more smoothly and do need to add some more balancing units to my forces as my Ultramarines need some long range firepower while my Eldar need more swift moving units too!

At present, an average game lasts about 20-30 minutes which should allow me to run a decent mini campaign over the course of an evening but the more multi wound vehicles and units I add, the longer it takes to play.

In the meantime, I'm also starting work on my Orks and have managed to finish two stands of Goff boyz to test out how they look and if a more verdant base works with them. While I like the Orks, I'm not sure about the bases and think I need to add some green static grass or patches of vegetation like I did with my aris bases to make them pop.

Ork Boyz

I think I need to rummage my Epic boxes to see what I have and what I can add to my forces as it would be great to see some fully fleshed out little patrols duking it out over the coming months!

In the meantime, All the best!

Imperial Progress

Hi!

Well work has been taking up quite a lot of my time over the last few weeks as well as assorted flat related gubbins so hobbying is having a bit of a struggle but I have managed to finish off a few more bits and bobs for my Epic Ultramarines!

First up, I've finally got my Techmarine complete along with his banner:

Techmarine plus mechanics

I've also got some rapid response in the form of a Landspeeder, which is actually one of my favourite Epic figures that I've painted to date:

 Swoosh!

Next up, here's some quick shots of my army thus far:

 Command and control

Ultramarines of the III Legion, VII company commanded by Captain Fentros

More Ultraness!

I'm really liking the combined force as it stands and with the addition of some more vehicles and a few infantry, I think it will be complete (for the time being!) and will move on to finishing up my Eldar and Renegades, not to mention some Orkish types to shoot the place up a bit...

Tactical Platoon

Speaking of Renegades, I've managed to finish the first of my Followers of Titan Rhino's:

Aggressive

It's a stock plastic Rhino with a scratch built ram made from plasticard. I must admit that I am not too much of a fan of much of the Chaos stuff that got released for 3rd edition of Epic with all the chains and trophy racks.

In my setting, Chaos doesn't really exist, instead you have the Followers of the Titans, an ancient race of gods who ruled the Imperium before being cast down my their offspring. In the ensuing eons, they have fought using their human and alien proxies to regain their former glories.

The Titans are not evil and neither are their followers. They are elemental and prone to acting rashly but not intent on destroying the universe in some sort of apocalyptic frenzy. They want to rule the place so wrecking it up seems a bit counter productive...

I have also painted a few bits and bobs in 15mm scale for my upcoming Rogue Trader demo at work but am saving the pics until I have everything finished and will post up the forces, the terrain and the scenario in advance hopefully followed by a bit of an after action report following the evening (if I can get anyone to have a go at it!)

In the meantime, All the best!

Centurion Trinity Sighted

Hi!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I spent a couple of hours last night finishing up some assorted gubbins for my Epic project, namely expanding my Ultramarine detachment choices.

First up, here's a trinity of Centurion heavy battle armour:

Centurion Heavy Battle Armour

In recent years, Centurion heavy battle armour has become a more common sight in the Space Marine Legions but this is their first recorded deployment on Farpoint. These advanced battle suits allow Space Marine forces to deploy heavy weaponry on a more mobile and less expensive frame than their Dreadnought walkers.

Operating in groups of three known as Trinities, these Centurions are equipped with a las cannon, two rocket pods and a storm bolter as well as a power fist. The groups callsign is Hesperus and are currently being used to defend the Trilithium mines at Deadwater, a small outpost approximately two hundred miles from Freeport City.

Next up, there's the first of my Ultramarine Assault Squads:

Assault Squad

I picked these guys up in a trade several years ago and they sported a bit of a blobby paintjob and lots of bright green flock. Instead of stripping them, I carefully removed them from their old base, soaked them in water to remove the flock and scraped off the mould lines and pieces of sprue that were still stuck to them. With a bit of a repaint, they look pretty decent!

With all the goodies getting reinforced, I wanted to start expanding my Renegades too so have finished up a command stand for my Berzerker Cult:

 Karnac Mordent, Commander of the Followers of Titan

As the Governor General has feared, Alexandr Vosk, the disgraced ex ruler of the sector has brought in some serious support for his anti Imperial machinations. Through his contacts with Lucius Goldburg, the sectors biggest crimelord, Vosk has hired a group of Renegades known as The Followers of Titan under the command of the notorious Karnak Mordent.

Thus far the Renegades have only been glimpsed briefly on Farpoint when they raided Deadwater and lifted a Trilithium shipment under the noses of the local garrison. Only the intervention of the Ultramarines saw the traitors driven off.

A gun battle rages on the outskirts of Deadwater between Ultramarines and Renegades

I'm rather pleased with the progress I'm making on my Epic project and hope to try out a game this evening using some bodged together rules and a small playing surface!

I've also been busily building some scenics of a suitable scale for my project and the latest addition is the local mining offices of Con-Am:

Renegades dig in around the Mining Office

Built from an old cocktail stick container and a small box as well as lots of cardboard and a Ramshackle Games resin gubbin, I quite like how the office has turned out. I also put together some barricades from an assortment of cardboard and plastic gubbins I had kicking around as any small skirmish game worth it's salt needs lots of cover for the combatants to hide behind when the lead starts flying!

I'm also putting together some character bios as well as location guides and maps for my upcoming campaign where the Governor Generals forces will be vying for the control of the Farpoint sector against Eldar and Rebel control!

In the meantime, All the best!

Epic Musings

Hi!

Well I've been slowly painting some more epic scale gubbins for my Ultramarines as well as bodging some more buildings together and have had some further rambling thoughts on what I want to do with my collection moving forward into the new year.

I've got a decent amount of unpainted goodies still to work through, not to mention a complete starter set of Epic 40k awaiting me in the new year but I seem to be getting lots of ideas for reinforcements for my existing forces as well as entirely new ones.

 Mercenary Armour

I'm thinking of putting together an Imperial Guard formation too to match my 15mm stuff so I can try playing around with some larger scale encounters in the Farpoint sector. The plan is to slowly paint my way through everything I have in 6mm (which is a surprising amount!) and try to play out a campaign over the course of 2018.

 That was like, Ultra!

As things stand, I have a decent skirmish force for my Ultramarines and Eldar but need to bulk both out to cover all the options that I want to cover. My Squats are slowly coming together but I really need to add some more heavy vehicles to the mix. I have enough gubbins to build a decent Chaos renegade force as well as a fair chunk of Orks which should cover most eventualities.

Ultramarine VII company 

I'm hoping to incorporate several scales to the campaign, be they 15mm scale skirmishes, large scale rumbles in 6mm, dogfights in space and even some fleetscale shenanigans. I have several days off coming up over Christmas and between festive food I'm hoping to start building up my assorted forces and bulk up my scenery collection as well as getting the background put together for the upcoming campaign!

Eldar Raiders

I'm rather enjoying the prospect of playing out some game and hope that it will spur me onto painting more and really re-engaging with my hobby too! 

Now I doubt my armies will ever total the likes of this classic 2nd edition army but I plan on enjoying myself over the next twelve months!

 If only!

I think that I need to do a bit of a stocktake of the stuff I have and see about trading for the odds and ends that I'm missing and we shall see what I can put together and will post some further gubbins over the next few days including some epic scale Centurions for my Ultramarine legion!

In the meantime, All the best!

A Return to Aeroth?

Hi!

Well another busy day at work is over but I have loads of stuff still to do organising a Harry Potter evening instore for 200 people so I suspect that my hobby time is going to be next to non-existent for the next couple of weeks but I do find myself looking back over some of my Aeroth stuff of the last few years.

Now I have tried time and again to get some warbands put together for the classic wargame, Leviathan but for various reasons I just don't seem to be able to get anywhere. Part of the problem is that the original game was in 28mm scale and required some really vast warbeasts and engines of destruction to play such as this fellow below:

Orc Titanosaur

The game looked amazing if a bit impractical as you needed a vast amount of space to play it properly, not to mention a large selection of equally vast monsters. I've tried it out in 15mm with some success and am slowly working on a selection of 6mm bits and bobs to represent some of the epic battles that take place on the blasted plains of Aeroth but I can't help but wonder what I can do to resurrect the fun I had with the game.

Horned Folk Warband

Now I doubt that I can summon up the time or space to create a mass battle in 28mm scale but I have been wondering about a 28mm skirmish or a 15mm scale mid sized battle sort of  a deal. With that in mind, I am going to do a bit of experimenting to see if I can't put together some bits and bobs.

I don't know how much time I have spare to work on the project but I am rather keen to have a bash and see what I can put together. Hopefully I will have something to post this weekend though!

All the best!

Epic Shenanigans

Hi!

Well lo and behold, I have two days off in a row! Wonders will never cease apparently so I figured I would post a quick pic or two of my ongoing Epic project.

 First up, here's a quick shot of my new fast attack vehicle for my Eldar, the venerable Vyper Jetbike:

Vyper

For an old plastic model, the vehicle is surprisingly detailed and rather fun to paint too which has been a reel boon in stopping me becoming bored with the project. It's actually starting to feel like I actually have a proper force for Epic related games and am looking forward to trying out a game of Gruntz using my Eldar and Ultramarines.

 Eldar and Ultramarines clash over a crashed shuttle somewhere on the border

I think I could do with a support weapon for my Eldar to give them some long range punch but am quite pleased with how they are turning out and once I have the Dark Reapers sorted, think they should be quite a decent force.

Next up, here's a pic of something I've been pondering for a while. I love the Squats in Epic with their oversized vehicles and terrifyingly shooty warengines but they are quite pricy to source second hand these days. Instead I wanted to find something suitably high tech and inkeeping with my alternative Imperium so found this chappy in my bits box:

Heimdall Monitor Tank

It's a Battletech sculpt for one of their superheavy battle tanks and I love the look of the beast from it's aggressively large gun to the sloped tracks and with a little bit of conversion (ie the application of a shield boss) I think it would make a super addition to the Squat force I am slowly putting together.

The only thing that's holding me back is trying to choose what colour to paint the beast so suggestions would be most welcome!

Another force that I am very keen to get to grips with is my Ork forces. Looking at my bits boxes, I do seem to have a fair number of Boyz and some Battlewagons but seem to be missing an awful lot more. I am going to put up a page of WANTED stuff and see if I can't trade some of my unwanted lead for stuff that I am wanting to paint so do check back over the next day or two!

In the meantime, All the best!

Orkish Attack Hound

Hi!

Well I had a rather productive day off yesterday and completed a few more bits and bobs that have been languishing half done on my painting desk for some time now:

 Fido the death dog

First up, there's an attack dog for my Bloodaxe warband. Originally from the Mantic Marauder faction for Deadzone, he painted up really quickly and despite having rather a cartoony look to him (or possibly because he did) he fits in really well with the Bloodaxes.

 Nom!

I extended the body very slightly with a little putty and went for a really quick paintjob and it turned out surprisingly well for about an hours work. I have a second one in the queue to get put together and may convert him slightly by removing the chainsaw from his mouth and adding a tongue instead.

Bionics detail

I also managed to finish off a couple more stands for my Grey Elves for Leviathan:

Elven regiment

I must admit that the little chaps are looking good but I frankly hate the amount of work that it takes to get them ready to paint. I have to remove the original spears, clear off lots of mould lines, add a new spear from wire and then sculpt on a replacement arm. Irregular miniatures looks surprisingly good once painted but they could really simplify things if they cast individually!

I'm off to work in a couple of hours so will have to leave it there I'm afraid but hopefully I will get some more bits and bobs done soon including another Eldar who has been sat half finished for far too long now!

All the best!

Redemptionist Fanatics!

Hi!

Following on from my Laserburn kick of last week I have also finished basing some crazed Redemptionist cultist types.

 Red Redemptionists!

They are the 15mm.co.uk fanatic figures but the sculpting on them is pretty dire so I reworked them as best as I could by adding more interesting pointy hoods and beefed up some of their guns.

To make matters worse they are on the larger end of the 15mm scale and have VERY thick bases so I incorporated some rock formations for the crazies to stand on so they dont look quite so bad.

 Fanatics with firepower!

I've always had a soft spot for the Redemptionists in Necromunda and took the opportunity to add some flames and checked leggings on them to liven things up a bit. I gave the two heavies a yellow hood to identify them more easily and their leader gets a fetching black one. He's actually a mercenary but I wanted a different sculpt and used him instead with just a head removal and pointy hat he looks ok!

Wile going through my miniatures collection I also rummaged these fellows out of a drawer:

6mm Scale Goblins!

I had originally painted them back in my Leviathan days as a possible way of playing the game on the cheap and in a limited space, sort of a travel Leviathan but never completed the project. I have several more bases of the little fellows kicking around and may yet expand them a little with one or two warbeasts to liven things up but we shall have to see!

Oddly enough, the sculpting quality, especially on faces is excellent and the Irregular Armies website really doesn't do the range justice as they have some lovely sculpts and I would recommend folks take another look at the range!

All the best!

Painters Progress

Hi!

Well I have finally finished some of the Catachans I had been working on:

Catachan Jungle Fighters

I now have enough to play a small skirmish with but want to crack on and paint a few more as I could do with a full squad of ten. I painted these up as a batch applying the paint to all five figures at the same time and although it proved to speed things up I must admit that I prefer painting figures individually! Of the five figures shown, four were originally very badly painted and required to be stripped of paint using Mr Muscle. I had got them from an ebay lot cheaply and was surprised by how well they cleaned up and now they look rather better!

Next up, following a rummage in my bits boxes I found an old Rogue Trader Ork so decided to paint him up too:

Bad Moon Guffbag Nosebiter

He will eventually form part of a mob that will provide some opposition to my Guard. I must admit I was surprised by how small he is as compared to the giant gorillas of modern day Orks hes nearer the size of a Gretchen! Still he has loads of character and painted up nicely despite still having some remnants of paint on him that I just couldn't budge.

Finally I managed to take a quick picture of another stand of battle armour for my 6mm project!

Battle Armour

Its originally from the clicky Mechwarrior range but painted up rather nicely and was a bit of a test colour scheme for a new force I am thinking of doing.

Looking at my progress I must admit I am rather pleased with what I have done so far as I have not only made a start on my Warhammer 40k 2nd edition project but also done something for my 6mm project and at the same time it also clears some of my lead pile!

Speaking of the lead pile heres a quick picture of what I still have to paint:

Bits Boxes

As you can see I still have plenty to be getting on with! Sadly my lead pile os much reduced following my great clearout but it does mean that the task of painting all of it is reachable! 

All the best!

6mm Scale Skirmishing?

Hi!

I've been pondering painting up some old Epic figures I have had kicking around for some time now and have been searching round for a decent ruleset to use.

Epic 40k

I must admit that I am a real fan of Epic 40000, the third edition of Games Workshops 6mm scale Epic game. Its rules are really streamlined and simplified which allows for a really fun and fast playing game. The only problem is Epic is a tad pricey to collect these days with even the plastic infantry going for silly money plus I must admit I got tired of the Grimdark future that GW seems to have stuck with.

Another game that caught my eye a few years back was Mechwarrior Darkage, a collectable miniatures game. Although I never really played it I did read some of the background and liked the setting and the concept of small ragtag forces fighting it out using mechs, vehicles and infantry.

Sadly the game enraged fans of Battletech with its redesigns of classic mechs, butchering the setting, rulecreep and most of all, its collectable nature! What it did for me was give me an idea for a fun, inexpensive project that would allow me to collect a couple of small forces to paint!

So whats the plan you may ask? Essentially I am hoping to have a bash at using my favorite ruleset, Song of Blades as a basis for some small scale skirmishing.

I first came across Song of Blades not long after it was released but at the time I didn't rate it as it was just so simple. Move forward a few years and I was looking for a fast, simple ruleset to play some 15mm scale fantasy skirmishes with and by chance I tried out Song of Blades again and have been a fan ever since. Its genius is that one can play using any figures they have on a reasonably small board. It doesn't need one to have a degree in maths to play and games tend not to drag on for ever while keeping both players involved.

In fact its perfect for solo gaming, which is ideal for me as the mechanics allow one to play both sides without too much difficulty essentially turning it into a RPG lite sort of game.

Now I've settled on the system, I need to figure out how to turn a fantasy skirmish game into a fun 6mm sci-fi one. I am planning on basing up my figures on the new style lipped bases with an infantry squad or tank taking a single 30mm round base. Larger vehicles and mechs can then be given larger bases as required.

Games will be played on a 2x2' or 2x3' board as thats all the space I can manage at present and the combatants will probably feature about a dozen or so bases each and be very scenario based rather than a straight up brawl.

Setting wise, I will be settling with my own home brewed one of Farpoint, a frontier world with limited resources. Forces will initially include a planetary defence force and some marauding pirate types! Later on I will add some mercenary units and some other bits and bobs as the setting and time allows!

As always with my projects, the budget is severely limited so I will be trying to make do with what I've got for the time being and only making very small purchases when I need them! To cut down on cost I am also hoping to sculpt up some small vehicles and mechs to add to the fun.

Hopefully I will be able to get some background posted up soonish covering the world of Farpoint and the forces vying for its control!

All the best!