January to March - 6mm Cold War, Bolt Action, Badab!

 2023 is flying!

Can't exactly say the same for my hobbying, however the model count ain't bad! (6mm helps a lot)

I built/painted the Panzer IV I got for Christmas - decided to go short barrel 75mm early war DAK on it.

Finished the first of my Kill Teams for the Badab war - just a squad of bog standard marines and assault dudes for the Space Sharks, and some scouts for the Lamenters.

The biggest movement was on the 6mm front - I've been grabbing stuff from Heroics and Ros directly and some eBay lots.

I've still not entirely set myself on what basing to go with, unit compositions etc - I've kind of went with Cold War Commander compatible units, but with a mind for my own rule set.

2022 Round up! (and a look in to 2023)

 Argh! 6 months without a post. Not great!

Hobbying over the summer was pretty light - I managed a few games of Epic which we got in the can for the Life of Die YouTube channel, and I painted a handful of minis.

November saw the start of a new project that has been burning in the back of my mind for a long time... 6mm Cold War.

I picked up a couple of job lots from eBay to get me started, then added some bits I felt were missing. The main driver though is rules. I've checked out Cold War Commander 2.0 and a few others but my real desire is to write my own set, and it's been a really interesting experience.

I went in with 0 research, only my experience of playing a lot of games and working on engineering projects as my real world job, but it really pleased me to see that after getting a lot of ideas down and stitching them together, I was very close to what looked like a playable set of rules, then this was further validated by watching the 'Rule of Carnage' podcasts where indie game designers chat, and i was unknowingly following a lot of their processes.

Anyhoo - I'm hoping to have a decent 1st draft ready shortly - selfishly designed around the minis I have and my desire to see them on the tabletop.

Other than that the year is ending with bloomin' Space Marines... 

We are starting a slow-grow OnePageRules Grimdark Future campaign set in the Badab War conflict in 40k, where lesser represented legions of space marines battle it out. Should be a good cleanser project and get me back in to the swing of painting!

In terms of 2022 hobby goals achieved... Yeah, not great!

I did at least buy very little this year, and fairly sure I painted most of it. I was sooo close to a 0 pile of shame at the end of last year that I'm a little disappointed that my collection has grown again.

There was a decent amount of gaming at least!

Plans for 2023

Badab War - paint/repaint existing 40k stuff - buy nothing!

6mm Cold War - finish the rules, paint what I have - buy nothing! (sell the excess - ended up with far too many helicopters in one job lot!)

40k Other - Still got some Eldar and the Blackstone Fortress box to crack into if I want to paint something different - buy nothing! (maybe even sell some stuff).

Bolt Action - Get more games in! still got a box full of Winter Germans, British Commandos and British Commonwealth infantry I could do something with if the notion took... Again, buy nothing!

Everything else...

I got the Flames of War 'Hit the Beach' set for Christmas. It's an amazing box, similar to the 'Open Fire' one I had years ago when I first got back into the hobby. It's staying sealed for now as I don't need another scale in my life (again!). If the rules writing bug gets me it could be a great candidate/muse for a company level WW2 game, as FoW doesn't grab me, or could be great for proper sized Bolt Action Tank War games...

Epic - keep playing. We have a docket lined out for next year for games of Net Epic gold, and some discussion for 3rd edition too.

And now, an out of context photo dump!

 

March (early) round-up - Mostly Epic!

 I'm a little early this month, but making hay whilst the sun shines i guess!

It's been a productive few weeks, where I've had a little spark of creativity and decided to revisit some 6mm projects I had bouncing around my brain and bits box...

I started with some Ork character stands and their gretchin body guards - a Painboy, Mekboy, Wierdboy, Runtherd and Warlord, which i had based up last year and finally decided to put paint to plastic. (At the end of the month i realised i was a few Nobz short too, so added them).

Some Goff Gutrippas followed - I just had them and fancied painting them, which is a recurring theme this month.

I (sort-of) made some squat progress, although not in the way i wanted. I still couldn't bring myself to paint the infantry, instead I knocked out a Collosus and it's recon Gyro-Copter, a Leviathan for the IG which was already thick with paint and I didn't bother stripping it, and them some kit bashed Goliath Mega Cannon.

The Cannon were inspired by a few things.

• Dog turd bag roll tubes - looked a decent size (probably a bit big in fairness!) and I had lots to hand.
• The price of the originals - some crazy scalps selling them for £15+ a model!
• The fact i don't like the originals, and felt they needed to be somewhat self-propelled to be 'realistic'
• an excuse to kitbash, and it ties in nicely with my squat lore, that my guys are closely tied to the ad-mech, sharing tech and resources, so the older STLs and vehicles have been passed on and modified

I messed around with a few configurations settling on a more compact design, mostly to make them easier to store and more robust, and I'm really happy with them.

The Poundland/Dollar-store tunneller got some paint too as a test. I have another 2 so will maybe run them as Moles to take my squat warriors into combat.

The green imperial Knight Palladin Household were finished - after sitting base coated in my bits box for a year or so. They are rough, but passable.

The last 2 demon prince proxies from Vanguard got a lick of paint. These projects are great for a rainy mid-week lunch break effort as they (and everything this month) come together very quickly.

Lastly - more Orks! Madboyz, 3 units of them to fill up any 2nd edition army free support slots. Had to be done!

On to April now - Squats! Bikers, Infantry, Light artillery and then we are done.

Bolt action - finish the Volksstrum.

Maybe some more kitbashing... We'll see.

Epic - Cleansing the palate

Popped some fairly random miniatures out of my Epic box for a quick 28mm/WW2 palate cleanser.

Fun to paint bold colours at this smaller scale again.

In addition I finally completed my plan to create drop-pod company using wall plugs I bought last year.

I also took my epic Orks out for a bit of an inventory - as I didn't include them in my re-basing exercise last year (for good reason - my sanity).

I've concluded that I have 'too much' of some stuff, and not enough of others. e.g. I have multiple copies of the same clan, but I'm lacking some support options and cools things like the mek-boy renegades.

So I think I'll get rid of some of the stuff I'm not overly fond of and try to find the missing bits for a reasonable price.

On the paint table - November

 Just a quick post with some updates for this month.

I've started a bit of a clear out. I binned a load of half finished/broken terrain, mostly 28mm Sci-Fi stuff that I don't think would have seen much action anytime.

My plan is to offload my desert and jungle stuff soon too.

As cool as it is having lots of sets of terrain, for various scales, and environments, the practicality of  storing it is becoming an issue, and realistically the amount of time it spends on the shelf vs being used is crazy.

My aim now is to have a nice set of 28mm and 6mm temperate/european style terrain and a nice mat to place it on, I'll also hold on to my smaller city scape board tiles and buildings to allow for some urban combat.

The next phase of this will be to try and cull the miniatures collection a bit, and finally rid myself of any unpainted 40k and fantasy stuff, as well as the excess epic projects that I don't need (another full chapter of space marines?!)

Anyhoo, on to progress - I picked up some of my favourite Thunderhawk models for the Epic Blood Angels, as I really hate the Mk1 'thunder-bricks', and as I'm playtesting new flyer rules i figured it would be nice to have models i actually like!

For Bolt Action, I reluctantly picked up a Cromwell tank for my British. I said I was done buying for a while, but a £5 eBay voucher forced my hand!

I don't regret it, it's a great kit, very simple and I love painting tanks!

In gaming terms it will also be nice as it gives my Brits a lighter option over the Churchill.

Just need to chuck some decals and aerials on and blend them in before calling it done.

Update - Decals