'Twas The Night Before AHPC9

As I write this, there are just 8 hours until the Challenge kicks off. I won't be getting up silly early to make my start at kick-off time, but do have a couple of items out to paint tomorrow for some quick points right at the start.

I did get most of the Soviet reinforcements primed today. I'm holding off on the guns until I've got bases to glue them onto (I discovered that I didn't have enough of the sizes I need, so placed an order with Warbases).

To clear my paint desk before the Challenge, I had one last job to do. Some of you will remember that last year I had purchased some Hotwheels models of Star Destroyers and oil-washed them to show up the panel lines. And so they had sat until today, when I finally got round to giving them a good dry-brush with white. With that done, I thought it might be a good idea to pick out some of the domes with colour and to use a different colour for each ship. When all the paint was dry I airbrushed a few light coats of satin varnish on them:

Reviewing the Kra'Vak figures I had primed, I realised that I would need to order another pack each of command and special weapons. So I placed an order yesterday afternoon for those and a few more vehicles. Now, I know from past experience and reputation that Mr Tuffley has illicit access to experimental wormhole technology for deliveries, but I was still somewhat shocked when the order arrived just after midday today.

As it's the December deal period, he had included some freebies:

That's two more two-seater grav bikes and a pair of support weapon teams for the Kra'Vak, along with some 15mm SF containers.

I also received notification that my Ona Bugeisha kickstarter minis from Bad Squiddo Games have been posted today.

SELWG 2017 - The Loot

I was in two minds about making the trip Sarrff ov tha rivva to the SELWG show at Crystal Palace last night, but I was feeling OK this morning (and not too late waking up) so I headed down despite knowing there were no trains and I'd have to face a long-ish bus ride from Brixton.

The bus ride turned out not to be as long as I'd feared and I got there at 10.30 with no need to queue. I started off with a tour of all the games to take pics (I'll be doing a separate post for those, posting tomorrow) before cracking on with shopping. I went with a short list and got all but two of the items on it (two Vallejo paints). And I may have purchased some things which weren't on the list. Oh, you know me too well - I did buy some things which weren't on my list, but they were all things which should have been on it. I did, however, manage to resist some temptations though.

The show itself seemed less busy than last year (which was less busy than 2015). A few regular traders were missing, but there were a few new ones to take their place. It was also evident that some of the games hadn't turned up.

I bumped into a large proportion of the CLWC membership at various times (including one at the bus stop in Brixton on the way down). I also met up with Ray, Big Lee and Postie for a good chinwag. I also had chats with Martin Goddard (Mr Peter Pig), Geoff from "Ham and Jam" a new terrain company and the ubiquitous Colonel Bill.

That's enough of an introductory burble though, on with the loot pics!

Products For Wargamers:

Essex Miniatures:

Some Chinese bearers and wheelbarrows to make up the camp for my Ming Chinese army.

Ground Zero Games:

I hadn't planned to buy anything from GZG, but it had been a few shows since I last made obeisance to the Evil Mr Tuffley so...after making the ritual sacrifice of cash I was granted a boon of a bunch of metal.

A Kra'Vak force for Gruntz:

Civilian power-suits:

I had a chat with Jon after making my purchases about what shiny temptations he has in the works. There will be even more new stuff released for Warfare next month and probably some more by the end of the year.

From Warlord Games and Ainsty:


WW2 Australians (Pacific theatre):

I think I mentioned a while back that I'd developed an interest in the New Guinea campaign, so I thought I'd pick up some figures to paint up. Ainsty only had the Artizan pack 2; I'll have to pick up pack 1 at some other time. I just need to get some of the Eureka figures to see how they fit with the Artizan and Warlord ones. These will give me a reasonable starter force (a short platoon) to be going on with.

Pulp Figures:
Also picked up from Ainsty, some packs I keep meaning (but forgetting) to buy:

The top two packs should make an interesting "gang" for Mad Dogs With Guns - Agents of Justice and Mysterious Masked Avengers. Boss McCoy's Office will probably become the Mayor; the 13th Precinct will boost the boys in blue.

Size comparison of Artizan and Warlord Aussies:

Artizan on left, Warlord on right

Artizan on left, Warlord on right

The Artizan are slightly shorter than the Warlord, but not so much that they can't be mixed.

That's it for today folks!

Army Review: 15mm NSL Ground Forces

I know you're all desperately anticipating the posting of my NSL ground forces, but you'll just have to wait...




OK, you won't have to wait. Here they are!

Panzergrenadiers:

Hover bike scouts

Hover MAWPs (Mobile Autonomous Weapon Platforms)

Squad attachments

Squads and squad attachments

Squads, squad attachments and commanders

HAMR specialists and heavy weapon teams

Laser snipers, plasma gunners and missile specialists

Panzergrenadier Vehicles:

Hover drones

APCs

Rear - command APC, cargo carrier, scout tank
Front - light tank, missile APC

Power Armour Squadron:

Heavy weapon specialists

Heavy weapon squads

Squads

Commander and sub-commanders

Panzers!:

Medium tanks/MBTs

SLAM artillery, air defence and missile tanks

Infantry close support tank; armoured cargo carrier, engineering tank

Heavy gun tanks

As I was writing this post, I got to wondering how much this lot weighs, so I put them on the bathroom scales - 12lbs (5.45kg). That's quite a bit of heavy metal!

Army Review: 15mm Crusties

Not a bunch of unwashed music festival-going types (well, I suppose they could be) but members of an alien race, possibly related to the "Prawns" from District 9. The figures are 15mm from GZG.

I'm not going to go OTT with these, although I do have a few additions in the painting queue - a pair of heavy walkers, a pair of light crab tanks and a few more infantry and PA troops.

NSL Vehicle Reinforcements

I still haven't finished the last three supers - sorry! Hope to get them done tomorrow.

Yesterday evening I spotted something lurking on the floor to the side of my painting desk, part-way finished - my extra NSL hover vehicles. I also realised that I probably need them for the game of Gruntz I'm planning for the Scattergun Gamer when he pops into the club during his UK trip in just over a week. The only steps left were the basing and to do go over some bits with satin or gloss varnish.

I did the basing last night, at which point I remembered the note I wrote to myself when I did the previous batch of vehicles - to add the basing mix before priming and painting everything! Today I've brushed off the excess sand and grit (especially where it had got onto the plenum/skirt of vehicles), painted the basing texture, added some patches of static grass and done the spots of gloss/satin varnish.

Anyway, they're all done now. The colours didn't come out quite the same as the original batch of vehicles - I think I used less of the Hull Red for these and the camo colours airbrushed through mesh seem to show up better this time.

Righty-ho, pics time:

The batch

Recon tankette and light tank

Rommel medium tanks

Supply truck

Gauntlet close support vehicle

Gauntlet engineering vehicle

All my NSL hover vehicles:

The lights

The heavies

Well, that's enough for one post!