Early Xmas Pressies For Me; Quick Update

A couple of posts back I told you that I'd ordered myself some early Xmas pressies. They've arrived, so let's look at the shininess!


From GZG:

15mm NAC Power Armour troopers

Some freebies - a J Peasmold waste recycling ship and some NSL ships: Q-Ship tender, 2 Emden class light cruisers, 2 Rottweil class missile destroyers. Not a bad haul at £23.10 of freebies from an order just over £100. Plus a 20% discount voucher I can use in the new year. But curses, curses, curses - the two Emdens mean I'll need to order 2 more Kiel class light cruisers so that I have 4 of each. That Mr Tuffley certainly knows how to extract money from your bank account!

6 packs of Adler II class light fighters

A Lady Christina class salvage/repair vessel and a NAC Battleaxe class heavy cruiser

NSL Odenwald class fleet tender and Walchensee class fleet tanker

Helgoland class heavy cruiser, 2 Rommel class attack cruisers, 3 Nibelung class corvettes, Kiel class light cruiser, 2 Danzig class escort cruisers

Graf Spee class battleship, Maria Theresa class battle dreadnought, Wien class light carrier

Neu Salzburg class heavy carrier, Prinzessin class escort carrier, Hapsburg Class heavy battleship

Gulp! That more than doubles the size of my NSL fleet and probably makes it much larger than my Japanese fleet. Even more prepwork for me to do....


Baccus 6mm:

Some extras for my ACW project:

Casualties and 3 inch ordnance

Casualties and 3 inch ordnance

Union and Confederate commanders

Union and Confederate dismounted cavalry (2 packs of each)

Wagons, civvies, tents, gabions and stacks of cannon balls

Apart from the casualties, I won't be prepping these up for a while as I think my current load of prepped figures for the Challenge are more than enough to be going on with. If it looks as though I may have time to get these done as well, then they will get prepped and painted during the Challenge.


As well as these, I've also received my orders for magnetised bases from Tiny Tin Troops (for the ACW project) and pick-and-pluck foam trays for my fleets from Figures in Comfort.


Quick Update

I haven't done any painting since Sunday, but did get a bit more prep done on the Swiss halberdiers on Monday.

On Monday evening I was at the club playing X-Wing with Simon. We got three games in - one at 50 points, one at 75 points and one at 100 points. I won the first two games but lost the last. I forgot my camera (well, to be accurate I didn't have room for it in my bag anyway) but Simon did take some pics and hopefully he'll post them on his blog at some point. Great fun was had by both of us.

Yesterday I was freezing my tits, err, toes off on the picket lines at work (yes, I am a trade union activist and proud of it) and at a rally outside the employers' association offices from 7.30am to 1pm. I decided to skip the main rally (and the march down to it) as I was desperate for the loo (I knew that third coffee was a mistake!) and head home, via the local Royal Mail sorting office to pick up the packages I'd missed on Saturday. After unpacking the parcels I crashed out for 3 hours on the sofa and when I woke up in the evening I didn't feel like painting or doing any prep.

Today has been weird. I had what I call an "episode". Over the last 13 years I've suffered these. What happens is that I go into a very deep sleep and nothing will wake me up - alarms, phone ringing even people buzzing my doorbell. I eventually do wake up in the early evening, feeling drained and somewhat confused. I did get tested by the neurologists several years ago, but as they occur so randomly and infrequently they couldn't make a specific diagnosis. Their best guess is that it is a form of sleep epilepsy. So, I haven't been at work today either.

Back from Broadside 2013; Secret Project Revealed

Well folks, today a took a trip out of London heading down to Sittingbourne for Broadside 2013. At least this year I got to Victoria station in plenty of time to grab a coffee after buying my train ticket, have a quick smoke outside, then grab a BK Bacon Double Cheesburger (breakfast!) before getting on the train.

I got there just after 11am and the first person I bumped into was Fran. The rejects' game was right in front of me, so I popped over to say "hi!" to Big Lee and then Henry Hyde magically appeared. Ray was off harassing someone elsewhere whilst avoiding parting with cash (I think he only spent 70p while there - for a cuppa) but came back not long after I got there. After a brief chat with the boys, I took a couple of pics of the game and realised that my camera battery had run low. *headpalm* I'd forgotten to check the battery level last night.

This was taken a while later

With pics taken, it was time for my first tour of the show. I'd barely got halfway round the small hall when David Crook grabbed me. This dodgy dealer had emailed me last night to say that he had some "stuff" to feed my current addiction if I had the readies to pay for it. So, I inspected the merchandise, approved of it and handed over a wedge of notes. (translation - this lovely gentleman had some very nice pirate books which he sold to me for £30).

So, back to the Rejects' table to drop off the books and on with the shopping and looking at games. My first pass around the main hall saw me picking up a few second hand Ospreys, some dice (yup, more dice - their gods demand new toys be purchased regularly to avoid bad luck), some 15mm aliens (and some moisture collectors) from Brigade Models, some Vallejo paints I'm running low on, card sleeves an X-Wing X-Wing expansion pack, and a Gale Force 9 star mat for X-Wing. Early on in this shopping bout I had a chat with Clint and was given a baggie of (very rich as it happens) chocolate fudge he'd made earlier in the week.

That bout of shopping over and done with, I headed back to the Rejects, sorted by backpack out and got ready for an important event. Yes, the revelation of another Secret Project. Some of you may recall all my ribbing of Ray about sandbagging during and after Curt's Challenge. Oh, and the other Secret Project revealed at Salute (a pack of real-life sandbags!). Well, it was time for another Secret Project to be given to him. He was pleased as punch with it and put it on display with all the game info. I'll do a separate post tomorrow with lots of close-up pics of it, but here is a teaser pic for now:

I then did another tour of the traders. This time I picked up another Osprey (from a shelf I'd missed on the first pass), some Gripping Beast metal minis (Viking hero and berserkers) and a KR Multicase X-Wing foam tray set and K-Lite bag. After taking this back to base-camp, I sat down and had lunch and a chat with Ray and the guys.

Lunch over, I did a final tour and parted with a little bit more cash for another book "Midget Ninja & Tactical Laxatives" by Philip Sidnell, which the author signed (he was manning the Pen & Sword stall).

So, the obligatory loot pic (well, the loot that would fit on my painting desk):

Oh, the games. Yes, there were quite a lot of games there. Ones that stood out for me were a Tex-Mex skirmish from 1842, a 10mm ECW game, a Sudan(?) game with great river boats and the invasion of Denmark game which I'd seen a few times before. Oh and the Boyne game and Clint's naval game naturally.

Sunday Update

OK, it's been a couple of days since I last posted, so it's definitely time for an update.


Thursday's X-Wing Games

I did take my camera, but ended up not taking any pics. Sorry about that. I was too busy playing or checking rules.

Anyway, 3 of us were playing - me, Simon and Seb - and plenty of others from the club popped over to our table for a look. Simon and I started off with the quick-start game to get the hang of the basics, then repeated it using the full rules. At that point Seb arrived and I gave him a game, then he played Simon but they got more ships onto the table. The final game saw me with 4 TIE fighters (2 x Academy Pilot; 2 x Obsidian Squadron Pilot) taking on the Falcon piloted by Chewie. We were running out of time, but after several turns I had 2 TIEs 1 hit away from death (the other 2 undamaged) and the Falcon was getting very close to being put out of action.

We all agreed it is a fun game and will make a good break from our usual FoG:AM and FoG:R games.


Project Pirate Pandemonium

The Pirates

Having looked again at the Blue Moon and rebel Minis pirates I'd already received, I worked out how many more I needed to make up the army and have ordered them.

The Ship

As it was the weekend, I decided it was time to start work on the ship. I filled the worst of the bubbles and gaps with plastic putty. After that it was cutting out the gun ports on the open deck, drilling holes into the other gun ports for the gun muzzles that came with it; measured  and cut the metal ladders; then glued all the metal parts in place. And then I kicked myself. I shouldn't have glued them in place until after I'd washed the resin ship to remove mould release agents. Oh well, I just had to be careful with how I did the washing.

This morning I spray-primed it with matt white paint, then left it to dry for a while.

Just to give a sense of the size of this ship - 35 cm (14 inches) long!

Donogh's Hasslefree minis in the background. I will get back to painting them this week.

A lovely mermaid as the figurehead

Weirdly enough, these bubbles are mostly invisible since I've painted the  basecoats

This evening I've been doing the base coats. For some reason, the Galleria raw umber paint didn't seem to want to go properly on over the white, so it looks a bit messy in places. For the decks I mixed in some yellow and white Crafters' Choice paint, which seemed to give slightly better coverage, but it was still messy. I guess the white spray paint doesn't have much "tooth" so was too smooth. I finished off that session by doing black for the stern panel, the bowsprit &keel, the grating over the ship's hold and the gunports and muzzles.

Since taking these photos I've done a little bit more. The gun port frames have been painted blue; the figurehead, stern-piece and windows have been given sky grey basecoats; and panels have been painted either blue or red. I've also gone over the hull with Vallejo burnt umber. I've also had to reinforce the ship's wheel as the metal was too weak and kept bending.

Now that I've got the bulk of the ship done, I'll just do little bits here and there over the next week or two. I still have to sort out the masts and sails - I need to get some doweling and some material.

A Bit More Pimping

James Brewerton of Exiles Wargames Painter is celebrating the 3rd birthday of his blog with a fantastic giveaway. So, if you want some freebies you'd better head over and start following if you aren't already. All you've got to do is comment on the post and there are bonus points for pimpage and poetry (he's asked for wargaming related limericks, but I submitted a haiku instead).

I may or may not post later this evening - I've arranged with a couple of people at the club to play our first games of X-Wing, so it should be fun. If only it was 26 days earlier so we could quip "May the fourth be with you!". I guess we'll just have to settle for such benedictions as "Stay on target", "I find your lack of faith disturbing" and "Let the Wookie win!".

I've remembered my camera, so there should be pics.

Edit To Add: Don't forget Mike Whitaker's giveaways over at Trouble At T'Mill

And another Edit To Add: I've just realised this was my 400th post!!

Salute 2013 - the Swag

Post 2 of 4 about Salute. And this is the one with my swag.

I did go along with a shopping list and was able to get evewrything apart from some Oriental scenery from Kerr & King. When prepping for the show, they cast up what they thought people were likely to be after and the Oriental buildings and fortifications weren't on that list. However, I was the 5th or 6th customer asking for them. They did have display pieces for the fortifications which looked pretty damned good, so I will be placing an order over the interweb.

So, piccy time!

First up, some foam trays from Figures In Comfort (for my Saga warbands and X-Wing); a pack of the new Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors; a FoG:R army list book (this is the one with "Buccaneers" - I quite fancy doing a pirate army some time); an X-Wing Tie Fighter expansion (I still can't find an X-Wing expansion for love nor money); a W&N Series 7 #1 brush; a Norman "Dux" figure from Conquest Games; Salute dice from the goodies bag

Some Renedra plastics - wattle fencing and Saxon tents; some stuff from 4Ground - an Anglo-Danish hovel and 3 peasant ox carts; some resin wagon loads; and It's That Man Again - the Dux has snuch into this photo as well!

Some colourful flowery tufts.

Some 15mm grav vehicles from Critical Mass Games - 3 heavy tanks and 3 APCs

That evil man John "Mr GZG" Tuffley parted me from my cash again! This bunch is the Crusties start pack plus a pack of Crusties civilians.

6mm ACW from Baccus - 2 Union infantry booster packs; 2 packs of cavalry (1 x kepi, 1 x hats) and a pack of Parrott rifled artillery. My plan is to do up a good sized force to try out the Polemos rules later this year. I might need to add some more artillery and cavalry later on and get some more flags.

And that's it! I managed to stick within my budget. There were temptations to spend more, but I'd run out of space in my backpack and I didn't think that any more weight was sensible.


"Ahhh, but where's your sprue of the Salute 2013 Jason mini?" you ask. Well, Andres over at Einar Olafson Painting had an impromptu draw on his blog last night. Three lucky folks who commented before 11pm would get their mini assembled and painted by him. As it turned out, I was one of only 3 people who commented so I was a winner!

Andres was painting minis at the Warlord Games stall all day, so I popped over and gave him my sprue. We had a chat and he showed me what he was currently working on - some casualty figures (ECW Scots? Well, definitely Scots, and I presume ECW). They looked fab.

I've been ever so naughty....

Guilty Kitty looks guilty

....and bought X-Wing! After work I popped into Orcs Nest and purr-chased the following:

2 core sets; 1 each of the A-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Advanced and TIE Interceptor expansion packs. Oh, and a YT-1300 expansion pack for good measure.

"A YT-1300? What on Earth is that?" I hear (some of) you say. It's actually a well known vessel in the Star Wars universe. One example is currently owned by a former officer of the Imperial Navy accompanied by the prisoner he rescued from execution (which rescue led to him being a former officer of the Imperial Navy). what? You still haven't got it? OK, another clue - a 10-century bird of prey. Got it now? Good.

Yes, I forked out £25 for the Millenium Falcon expansion pack.

Unfortunately they didn't have the X-Wing and basic TIE fighter expansion packs, so I'll need to pick one each of those up at some point. And maybe a Slave 1 expansion pack too, just to complete the set.

Once the Challenge is over, I will try to get a couple of games in at the club.


Swiss Pikemen Prep

I'm almost there on prepping the pikemen - just 30 more hands to drill. I should have all the prep done tomorrow evening and might have managed to prime them before I go to bed. Then it will be time to crack on with the painting. I must be crazy attempting this - painting 256 15mm pikemen in just under 20 days. Can it be done? Who knows? One thing I do know is that I'll be wanting to take a well-deserved break from painting after that!