One Delivery... And Then Another...

 A package arrived yesterday. It was soft a squishy, like a pillow. What could be within?

It was a mat from Geek Villain. I can't remember what inspired me to order this but I did and it arrived (from the UK to Australia) within a couple of weeks.

It's very nice and very well made. It's the 6' x 4' "Autumn" design. It's fleece and has a really nice feel with a very clean print. I chose this one because I like the non-uniform look with those sandy/bare earth patches that break up the grass pattern.

It's a bit larger than 6x4 with a few inches overhang on the long edge and a small overhang on the short edges. One reason I wanted a fleece mat is so that I can place hills underneath to get that seamless effect as well at the prospect of placing small pieces of cottonwool (or whatever) to take away some of that that golf course flatness we all know and love.

There were creases in it (see pic above) from being folded and packed but the creases were almost undiscernible once it was laid out on the table.

As I said it has a really nice pattern with little patches of printed shrubbery.

I'm very happy with this purchase and there is only one thing better than this mat that I can think of. And that is...

A second mat!

Yes I ordered a matching pair so I can use them on either 6' x 12' or a 6' x 8' table.

And a second delivery arrived just this morning.

Two days in a row. 

What could this one be?

I tried to pick this up whilst I was in the UK recently but I was just out of time to get it. I think it was released the day I left for Greece so I had to wait until I got home to order it. When I did go to order it I discovered that the average price in Australia is about $60.00 which is one of the reasons I wanted to get it in the UK. However, I ordered it from Book Depositary instead and it cost $41.00. How is that possible?

Anyway; it looks nice and I'll delve into it this evening to see what goodies await within...

Nice artwork, that's for sure!

No... Sorry, We're Not The Riders of Rohan.

Sorry about any confusion. We are, in fact, The Riders who look a little bit like the Riders of Rohan.

I have an Anglo -Saxon army that can fit perfectly well into a fantasy setting. But to make them appear a little less "historical" I decided to add some "Northern Riders" to the host. After looking at various options I settled on Gripping Beast plastic Goth Noble Cavalry and now I wish I hadn't.

They came out looking fine and they'll look great in battle but the box itself is really very limited with only three horse and three rider poses. For the horses this isn't too bad but with the riders it means that there are four of each figure in a box of twelve. This makes them very repetitive (especially when I have a second box of them to paint).

Don't get me wrong: They came out just the way I wanted and I really like the look of them but I know that the the next lot of figures will look exactly the same as this lot. The rider that's sitting straight looks okay and the guy charging is limited but looks okay. It's the guy with his arm in the air is the real problem...

Again, the figure looks great but it's just too dramatic to have four different versions of him in one unit. To have eight of him on the table (two boxes of figure) will look dumb. The only alternative I can think of is to re-sculpt his whole right arm/shoulder/torso on a few of the figures and that will be a real pain in the bum.

Anyway, enough of my complaining. Here are my Northern Riders who are not The Riders of Rohan (unless I need them to be Riders of Rohan at a later date, at which time they will abruptly transform into the afore mentioned riders). These can make up either one large unit of 12 figures or two units of 6 depending on what rules are being used.

As you can see I tried to make a couple of hero/leaders using the "arm up in the air" torso. One has the sword arm that came with the kit and the other has the arm of an Oathmark dwarf with a big axe.

If you're wondering about the shields I downloaded an image (and, yes... It is a Rohan shield design just like the banners) and worked them to the right size and colour using photoshop. I then printed out a large batch of them, cut them out and fitted them onto the shields. The shield was then given a heavy coat of mat acrylic varnish. And before you ask; cutting out the little holes for the shield bosses was painstaking.

Cooee Cobber ~ Gallipoli Trench Raid

Our club has a new home and last night I attended our inaugural meeting and played a game of Through the Mud and the Blood, a WW1 game by the chaps from Lard Island. The game was set during the failed Allied landings at Gallipoli in 1915.

The scenario  had men of the Australian Light Horse mounting a night raid on the Turkish trenches in a bid to gain intelligence prior to a general attack. This is only the second WW1 game that I've ever played. They first was about 20 years ago in Sydney and also involved the Australian Light Horse and Johnny Turk. 

All of the figures and terrain were supplied by John S and all of the these pics were taken by him. My fellow ANZAC commander was Lorne and our fez wearing, full bodied coffee drinking opponents were Leith and Richard.

The following text is also by John & lifted directly from our club's Facebook page:

The ANZACs made three breaks in the wire and initially snuck forward on a moonlit night without the Ottomans spotting them.

Some sections were astute enough to be able to sketch out the defences without having to enter the labyrinth. Some sections made it to the trenches before the alarm was raised. The veteran ANZACs had the best of a sharp fight in the south but could not overpower a sentry in the north.

The ANZACs started taking a few casualties but the Vickers HMG bested their Ottoman opposition; driving the Turkish gunners away. This helped them get away with the scouting info. One section of ANZACs nearly got wiped out. These men were not helped by having a plan so doubly cunning that they did not even know it was a plan.

But overall the ANZAC casualties were light as the Ottoman reserve squads arrived just too late. Success to the ANZACs!

L - R Leith, Richard (a different John), Lorne and me without a head.

The terrain and figures were absolutely first class. All of the terrain was 3D printed by John (not the John pictured above). It was a great scenario and it was good to have played a WW1 game that didn't involve all of the mass death and destruction that one would normally associate with that conflict.

Thanks to John S and the other players for a great game in our new home.

Another Blast From The Past

I was going through some old pics the other day from the years before I started this blog. I remembered that I posted some older pics earlier this year but I couldn't remember what I posted. So I looked back and saw that I posted a bunch pics of my Games Workshop fantasy armies. However, the pics I was looking at the other day were my 40K armies. So, as before, I'll post some pics of them.

One major difference between 40K and Warhammer Fantasy is that I actually played some games of 40K. I played maybe a dozen or more games and decided I really didn't like the people who were playing the game in my area. So I stopped playing it and sold all my stuff. That was a shame really because I really liked the stuff that I did at the time. I had 2 armies - A big bunch of Eldar and a Sisters of Battle. 

Eldar ~ These were the first GW figures I bought and, just so you know, I didn't start wargaming through GW. I started back in the 1970's with Airfix WWII models and figures, moved on to Napoleonic's and many, many board games. Then came D&D!

But, I started 40K with Eldar because I loved the models. I pretty much made two 2000 point armies: The first one was a foot-slogger army and the second was mobile. I did a lot of conversions and things with these troops but I can't really remember many details.

This was my Flying Circus Seer Council. The colours don't mean anything, I just wanted to do them in different colours. Each one was scratch build using a regular jet-bike.

I made this guy after watching Easy Rider again. I based him on the Peter Fonder "Captain America" character. I got ripped off with these figures. I had them in a store on a commission sale. But the store sold them and never gave me the money. They closed down shortly after.

My Farseer on a hover-board. I sculpted this guy and he came out looking okay. I was happy with him.

I converted the Avatar to make him bigger and more intimidating. I cut him in half, cut his limbs and other bits and sort of stretched him out a bit. I did the same with his arms to change their position and lengthen them. I pinned him back together again and then added a bunch of greenstuff. It made him about half an inch taller.

This one was a favorite - An Autarch on a jet-bike. He came out looking really nice.

Here's a bunch of terrible looking photos. The camera I had at the time was pretty basic. I think I took most of these when I was selling them.

Sisters of Battle ~ I chose this army because it seemed a bit strange. It had the actual Sisters', Sisters Repentia, Archoflagellants, Witch hunters with flamethrowers etc... Bizarre stuff. I don't have many photo's, which is a shame. I actually painted the armour on the sisters with layers and layers of red ink on top of a red base, so it had a really nice glassy quality. I put a lot of detail into these including mascara and eye shadow on most of the little ladies.

I didn't want to spend $90 on an Exorcist so I made my own by using a cheap Rhino, bits and pieces and some plastic piping. It came out okay.

Assassins - I scratch built some of these because they were hard to get. I can't remember if they were any good but they fitted in well.

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Well that's it. I've painted many figures in the past and I have no pictures of them. It's a real shame because I put a lot of effort into each one of them. But, as I mentioned before, if I kept all of them I'd need a storeroom just to keep them all. Next time I'll have to post some of my old historical armies.