Dreadball Marauder Jack Complete

The other night I finally completed another of these blighters. I am not going to sugar coat it, these miniatures are awful. The detail is poor and the pose is dreadful. 

So, it is no surprise that I haven't put the usual effort into this "playing piece," I simply didn't enjoy painting it.

Anyway, another miniature done, so there is at least some satisfaction. My wife and I are up in Scotland for the Easter weekend, so there will be no painting for me this weekend. 

A Rather Productive Weekend

As Sunday draws to a close on a freezing weekend where we have had a light dusting of snow, I think back to Saturday morning and am struck by how much I got done. I started my day with a trip to town to pick up various supplies, and having done that, set about doing some modelling amongst my various other chores.

I made some bases for both my Deathwatch Kill Team and my Horus Heresy Ultramarines using various materials, and made some painting pegs and a crude stand for them. I made a video about it:

I then set about getting some painting done. I decided the other day that I would quite like to try playing Dreadball. So I began painting another Ork blocker, to go with the one I had painted ages ago. I finished him this evening. In truth, I can't stand these miniatures, they are poorly detailed for the most part, but I paid the money for them, so I might as well paint and use them. 

Latest addition is the chap on the left.

Of course, as soon as I uploaded the photo I realised that I had forgotten to paint his claws, but a quick coat of Ushabti Bone will fix that. Other than that, I got some undercoating done with the airbrush this afternoon. A platoon of 15mm Americans for World War II, half of my Deathwatch Kill Team, and five Ultramarines, as well as the bases I made, are all now undercoated. I even managed to get a start on the Ultramarines and a Deathwatch brother.

The plan is to do the Deathwatch one at a time, as a well as grind through a Dreadball Ork a day, depending on how much hobby time I get. The orange is a pain since neither tones of it cover particularly well, but I'll just have to push on through to get it done. The Ultramarines are pretty well defined in terms of painting line troops now, so I batch paint those. It has been great to get a win, even if just for a weekend, but I felt as though I got a fair bit done. 

Plans for 2014, Australia

So I am currently on an aeroplane over Iraq, wending my way at several thousand feet towards Dubai. After a short stop H and I will head off across the Indian Ocean to Brisbane, Australia and our new life. Packing was hard. Ten years of living in the UK has meant a natural accrual of goods, the detritus of life, being a magpie gamer my quantity of "stuff" is next-level. So a hard decision lay ahead, I had one suitcase, and only 30kg to pack my life into, and of course some of my allowance was shanghaied by Lady Tottington for her various items for beautifaction. In the end I came away with two small, flat boxes of around 20cm by 15cm. Inside these little boxes is a precious cargo...

The pictures above are the lot. I chose to take the Dark Angels portion of the Dark Vengeance boxed set, with a snazzy limited edition Chaplain and four terminators from the Assault on Black Reach boxed set. I have made a start on painting some of them already, the figures are really pleasing and there is the making of something greater amongst the elements I already have. In addition I also packed my Forgeworld things for the Dark Pact. There are two unfinished Mk. III Tactical Marines, and the parts for another three. Amongst the bits are two more Mk. V Marines, and my resin bits, the command upgrade, Iron Hands bionics, Deathwatch Kill Team upgrade kit, and the Mk. IV character upgrade set.

I also thought I would take something totally wild, so I packed my Corporation Dreadball team which remains unpainted. The central idea being that living nomadically leads towards skirmish games/board games. I did toy with the idea of bringing a Deadzone faction, but frankly assembling the figures nearly gave me an aneurysm, so I thought better of it. Instead, I might look into starting Malifaux. I've been listening to the Malifools podcast for months, ostensibly for the bants. Mike Marshall et al are always entertaining, sometimes insightful and always a delight. I especially enjoyed the Malinoobs segment and their guest stars over the last few months. Anyway, I suppose that ultimately it boils down to what community exists in the area we are in, but certainly the proliferation of plastic boxed sets makes Malifaux a good choice being both small and lightweight. Furthermore, with the higher cost of gaming in Australia something with a lower model buy in (a boxed set is enough to get started) is very much appealing. 

So these are my thoughts as we begin our descent into Dubai. It is 0800 local time, the sun is already baking the land below us, and we have another day's flying ahead of us. I'll be listening to more Malifools, some Independent Characters and generally be mulling over what 2014 could hold in store for me on the tabletop front.

Carry on Citizens. 

Dreadball

Although the focus is currently on my 30k Ultramarines project, and my continuing slow build up to my 40k skirmish project, I have also started painting up my Dreadball teams. The refbot is now painted and I have completed my first uniform test for my Ork team. 

Not 100% happy with the orange, I might add a wash to lift out the change in tone a little more, but otherwise happy enough. The sculpts aren't the best admittedly, but they paint up relatively swiftly. Looking forward to having some painted teams to play with. I bought Dreadball via Kickstarter, and frankly, I have barely looked at the game since it came in the post. However, with the possibility of gameplay rearing its head, I figure now is the time to get it painted. Everyone on YouTube and the wargaming community in general says good things, so I'd like to see for myself. Here's a rear shot: