What I DIDN'T Bring Back From Toronto

 Back from a trip out east. Well... east from where I live... Amanda had a work thing in Niagara Falls, and for the first time EVER, I got to tag along! We also had a few days in Toronto on either end of the trip, which was nice. While in Toronto I popped into two games stores - 401 Games (on Younge Street) and Meeplemart. For both I had a few things I was lookng for... but in the end decided I could just wait until I got home and MAIL ORDER it!? And that' what I did... 

401 games was INSANELY BUSY when we popped in. They had a LOT of stuff... but for the most part it was the same stuff I could get anywhere - including my own FLGS.

they also had a My Little Pony deck building game that I had not seen before. I took a picture to send to Finnegan... He didn't reply... I didn't get it... I figured we could get the Dragon's Den to order it in if anyone was THAT interested. 

They also had a shelf of smaller "indie" RPGs that... maybe if it wasn't so insanely busy and it wasn't so late in the day and I felt like I had time to fart around, I might have had a look through those for giggles. There was one I remember called Sapphic Space Pirates that I briefly thought of picking up thinking ONE of the kids might think it's fun... Kind of regret not picking it up now... 

The only thing I'd really been LOOKING for was a copy of Wrath & Glory: Redacted Records... which they had online, but they didn't have at that location... 

Later I got to pop into Meeplemart. Holy CRAP did they ever have a LOT of stuff there... it was a bit overwhelming. like boxes and boxes of miniatures in blister packs. I had a longer list of things to look for but didn't even know where to start with some of them and quickly decided it would be easier to just mail order the stuff when I got home - save me having to spend hours looking for things, save us having to try and figure out HOW to get it all packed into our luggage!? 

One of the first things I saw that hadn't been on my list was a copy of Pax Viking! Now, my local store has a copy of it... but this was nearly half the price they're selling it for locally. I realized later it was on the "Ding and Dent" shelf and there was a "ding" in the back of the box. I do LOVE the Pax series of games and ... HALF PRICE!? Amanda said we could figure out a way to stuff it into the luggage... I have my doubts it would have fit and it was at that point I for sure decided i'd just order stuff when I got home. 

Also saw this neat looking game called Crows (or... "Tyler Sigman's CROWS"...?) 

Keiran is ALL ABOUT crows these days, so I took some pics to remind myself to look it up and ask about it at the Dragon's Den. 

When I got home a week ago I placed an order for Pax Viking and a few of the miniatures and bitz I'd wanted. It arrived today!

The miniatures are a Turtle Warrior from Darksword Miniatures and a trio of Space Dwarf Special Operators from Kromlech Miniatures. the other packs are kilted legs from Kromlech... somehow I have a BUNCH of Imperial Guard Catachan torsos and arms and heads... but no legs!? I think they came in some used lot I picked up at some point. I thought it might be funny to make a Kill Team of Catachans in Kilts... 

There were a few more miniature items I had wanted to look for, but by the time I got home I'd talked myself out of them (some Tau and Aeldari aircraft for Aeronautica Imperialis, and the Cruel Seas core rulebook and a Vosper and S-Boat flotilla!? Maybe a few more things from Kromlech and Darksword miniatures...)

Of course I'd ordered this BEFORE checking into the availability of the Crows game... and it turns out it was a Kickstarter game from a few years back and is NOT-so-available and Meeplemart was selling it for quite a bit less than it seems most places were selling it for... so I placed ANOTHER order for that a day or two later (and a Wrath & Glory book...) 

Speaking of having to place extra orders... I also stopped into The Beguiling the same day (AMAZING comic book store!) and I'd had a list of things to look for there... but forgot to LOOK at the list... and I did remember a few of the things ( a couple of books by Ralph Steadman) I forgot to look for an art book by John Blanche their online catalogue said they had in stock... so now I've had to order THAT from them... Ah, well... 

While there (on the same day we went to Meeplemart and The Beguiling) I was able to meet up with one of my favourite humans in the whole world, my old pal Christian! He took the train down from Barrie (which is near CFB Bordern, where he is currently posted) and, in addition to checking out Meeplemart and The Beguiling, we played a bunch of games at Snakes and Lattes on College... but more on that in the Monthly Games Wrap-Up! 

Imperial Guard and Swashbucklers

Well now that I’m all done with reminiscing over the past year and planning this coming year, it’s time to get back to painting toys and playing games!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

With realease of  En Garde! just around the corner I ordered some swashbucklers from Wargames Foundry  during their 20% off xmas sale. They finally arrived this past week and here are the first few to roll off  the workbench!

At the same time I ordered a few more English Civil War miniatures – figuring they could also be used for swashbuckling adventures! 

Here is a gen-u-ine Games Workshop Imperial Guard rocket launcher team. This is one I got off ebay and the prevous owner decided to remove the bipod on this launcher unit…?

I was feeling there was a lack of female troopers in my Imperial guard units – and as Games Workshop makes startlingly few of their own, I ordered these women from Copplestone Castings and replaced their firearms with GW Lasguns.

I also kitted them out with some other spare GW Imperial Guard equipment I had kicking around – canteen, ammo pouch, fighting knife and scabbard…

They fit in pretty good with the one other genuine GW Female Catachan jungle fighter I have…

But I’m not sure any of them quite fit in with the ridiculously overly muscular men of the unit… ah well…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Swashbucklers…? More Guardsmen…? 

Imperial Guardsmen and Last of the English Civil War Horse

Well not the LAST last… I do still have one more batch of mounted to finish up at some point, but likely the last I’ll be finishing up for now. Interests are shifting and when that happens it becomes excruciatingly painful to stay focused on stuff I’m no longer interested in – no matter how much “sense” it makes to finish up the last few bits. It was hard enough to finish these – and I was only able to do so because they were half done. The others will have to wait until I catch the ECW bug again.

In addition to the three elements of Horse I have another 10 elements (80 figures) of Pike, 8 elements (48 figures) shot, and a gun and crew of four… I do have a few more Scottish horse inbound – which I may get to painting when they arrive (because new and shiny stuff is always fun to paint).

I have a feeling I’ll be moving onto the Seven Years War for a spell as we are reaching that area of history in the books I’m reading with the kids. So expect some colourful men with muskets in the not too distant future.

I was also inspired by Millsy’s Mad Mega-post of the Astra Militarum’s Military Might and dug out a few of my own Catachan figures to finish up.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

English Civil War Horse – figures from Old Glory.

These are a few old Cobalt 1 figures I picked up from Black Hat Miniatures a while back. I thought they might work for player characters in a Rogue Trader game.

These are some really old GW Imperial guard (well… some of them may have been “pirates”…?) that I thought I’d use as “veterans” in my Imperial Guard companies.

Here, with some previously painted figures of similar vintage, is a complete veteran squad. Dang, I was sure I had ten of them for a full squad…. I must have missed someone!?

I can just imagine the Lascannon gunner tellin’ stories “You young pups have it easy, back in the day we didn’t haul our lascanons around on wheeled carriages – or grav sleds like those sissy Eldar – no sir! We humped them around and fired them from the hip like the badass muthas that we were!”

Proxy Catachan type… not sure where he cam from? I want to say Kryomek…? But I don’t know for sure…

Some more assorted Catachan types… all Games Workshop figures.

For the Catachan-type imperial guard  I have a company command, one complete platoon (Platoon HQ plus three squads), a couple special weapon teams (snipers, demolitions), an second (understrength) “proxy” (I-Kor Void figures) platoon (Platoon HQ plus two squads), a veteran section (above), a Sentinel walker, and two Abhuman squads (Ogryn and Ratling). I think pictures of most of them are posted on my 28mm Sci-Fi Gallery. Still to do is a third complete (Platoon HQ plus three squads), a couple more figures to make another special weapons team (probably plasma and melta guns – for up close and personal tank destruction!) and possibly another Sentinel walker…? Which isn’t much, in the grand scheme of things, so I’m feeling like I should just finish those up! Not sure if it’s a viable force in 40K… but it’s what I have collected up, so… just have to make due.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’ll likely shift focus and start painting some Seven Years War stuff and very likely some more 40K stuff! 

Imperial Guard Catachans

I have to admit I’ve been a fan of military role-playing games for a long time. I’m not saying they are the “best” or even my personal favourites – just saying I like them. I have very fond memories of playing Twilight: 2000, Traveller: Mercenary, Revised Recon, Behind Enemy Lines and Battletech: Mechwarrior in high school – and many of our Top Secret games were more “Special Ops” missions that “Spying”, per se... In more recent times I’ve run Tour of Darkness and Weird War Two campaigns with Savage Worlds, I even ran a Call of Cthulhu game set during the Great War where the characters were members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

I don’t know what it is about them… perhaps it’s because I’m interested in military history… perhaps it’s because it’s easy to set up a plot train when the characters are part of a military chain of command – “Here is your mission… go do it!”… Perhaps a bit of both.  Oh and (as a miniature wargamer) I’ve always had this megalomanic dream of running a military role-playing game where the players would start as grunts and work their way up to being the platoon/section commanders – at which point the engagements become skirmish wargames - then maybe after more campaigning they could even take command of companies and/or become part of a battalion’s staff – and then the combat engagements become another game entirely (possibly using Blitzkrieg/Cold War/Future War Commander)

I don’t even now how I started collecting up these things… Actually I do know the Void stuff I originally picked up from the bargan bin at the Dragon’s Den and I think I picked up a few odd Imperial Guard in lots off ebay. I looked into picking up a few more after I got  Rogue Trader and even more after picking up Only War last year. More recently I scrounged up a copy of an old Imperial Guard codex to see how the guard is theoretically organized – so I could organize this growing force of Imperial Guard that I seemed to be acquiring.

It’ll be awhile before I ever get around to running either Rogue Trader or Only War – but I got looking at these guys again after I picked up a few more Only War books during the annual Fantasy Flight Games Black Friday/Xmas Sale. I found I had a number of half painted guys (probably form last winter when I picked up the last batch of books/minis) and decided I should at least finish them off… then looking at the organization I realized I was one or two figure from finishing off a platoon – so I finished up a few more…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version):

Assorted Imperial Guard (and proxies) I painted over the last week.

These are (mostly) old I-Kore Void Viridian Commandoes (the fellow with the flamer is a Kryomek trooper). As I mentioned I’d originally picked up a few out of bargain bin for $1/pack – I’d originally planned to just use them as generic sci-fi military dudes, but then realized they’d make pretty good proxies at Imperial Guard Catachans. This particular lot I picked up off ebay to finish off a couple of squads of them (see the complete squads below)

These are some monks from Black Tree Design that I tried converting (with some gen-u-ine GW guard bitz) to use as Ministorium Priests of the Ecclesiarchy (I hope GW doesn’t sue).

Some Gen-u-ine Games Workshop Imperial Guard Catachan Jungle Fighters.

Adding these guys to troops I already have I end up with:

Blast! I’m TWO GUYS short of a (rather understrength) platoon of proxies (the platoon HQ should have two more guys in it…).

A few of the new guys allowed me to finish up a complete platoon of Catachan Imperial Guard.

The three older Ogryn I’ve just finished up look like little kids next to the other newer (but previously painted) Ogryn I have. I guess I’ll call him the Bone’ead of this attached Abhuman squad. Two of these guys came with goofy helmets with horns(!?) so I added a plastic GW Warhammer Fantasy ogre head to one and the other I just carved off the offending helmet and added a beret made of Green Stuff. Teh head swap looks pretty cool, the beret conversion... well.. it's not my best conversion ever - but it's better than the silly horned helmet! 

These are some of the other guys I just finished that will become part of some other platoon’s command sections (or something).

I also have a Company Command section and another attatched abhuman section of Ratling snipers - which are already painted. I have enough figures to make a second complete three-infantry-squad all GW Catachan platoon (as the one above) and another Platoon HQ, an infantry squad, a Heavy Weapons squad (three heavy bolters), and a smattering of additional light support weapons (flamers, plasma guns, melta guns snipers, and SIX guys with demolition chargers!?) I’m not sure what to do with them – perhaps organize them into special weapon squads? I have a batch of old Rogue Trader Era guardsmen that I thought I could use as a Veteran Squad. Oh, and a Scout Sentinal Troop….

Oh, and that’s just the Catachans… (I’ve acquired a smattering of Tallarn and Cadians – about a platoon of each)

(Oh, and then there’s the three 1/48 WW2 KV-2 tanks I picked up – along with a few GW bitz – to convert into a squad of Guard Ragnarok tanks – anybody remember those from Epic?)

I’m done with these for now though…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some Irish Wolfhounds that I’m just finishing up on the workbench and a few other odd and sundry items.

Stay tuned for that Looking Back at 2014 post.

We’ve been playing a LOT of boardgames this past week – perhaps I’ll post about that as well…