Sunday 24 March 2013

Stone Golems II

So I finished the Golems today. Neither of the photos does them justice, I need to learn how to use my camera. One shot is in focus but too bright with the colours washed out and the other is closer to the real colours but out of focus. Oh well.



I decided against faces and went for Dwarven glyphs instead. On closer inspection of the Armies of Arcana lists I noticed that Golems are roughly man sized on 25mm bases, so these cuties will have to be Greater Stone Golems. Powerful servants for my Dwarfs.

I've also started painting and basing the WWII stuff, but nothing worth showing yet...

Friday 22 March 2013

Stone Golems

Jason, from the club, gave me a bag of high density polystyrene off cuts that I needed for a scenery project (soon...) but I have diverted a little bit for other uses...

I said in an earlier post how I am abandoning Warhammer Fantasy for Armies of Arcana. I'm looking at using Dwarfs in my first few games and I'm keen to break out of the GW mould in designing my lists. What would look good/fluffy marching alongside Dwarfs? Stone Golems! (Earth Elementals?).

Half an hour hacking at a small pink block got me this far.


I've long run out of 50mm GW bases so I've glued some cavalry bases from a competitor together for my pink babies. Brass wire, PVA and another half hour later got me this.


I know. I'm not sure either. Still, there's a long way to go yet and they'll look very different after filler/sand, painting and basing. I may use liquid green stuff to build up faces, I haven't decided yet, but either way I can't do anything till tomorrow when they're dry.

Sunday 17 March 2013

Bolt Action Progress

The Britannia Miniatures order that I mentioned a few weeks ago has finally been assembled ready for painting. Resin and metal is a pain in the arse compared to plastic but they went together well enough. The Germans are getting a Maultier to tow the Pak 40, a recce. Sdkfz 222 AC and a recce. Sdkfz 250. Once I've bought a box of PSC Sdkfz 251D's the 250 will carry a platoon HQ. The British lost out and only got a Daimler Dingo AC. Still, it's cute...


And this is why I've only just assembled the resin stuff, I wanted to paint them at the same time as these beauties. A platoon of Pz IVH's from PSC. The models go together really well; they're quality figures. The instructions were crap however, as is the norm for PSC unfortunately.

Club Night 15th March - Nowt doing

Due to us being a disorganised bunch of muppets there was no action in our room ('The Stoke Rogues') at the club this week so I had a chance to nosey around the other rooms and see what was going on. There's normally six active rooms at the club but one is temporarily out of action due to building work and our room is full of their junk so we're down to one table for a couple of weeks.

All of the rooms are a little 'cliquey' and there's not much moving around between them other than for a quick natter. Here's a few snaps to show what was happening at the club this week.

In the 'War Room' they were starting a Fredericksburg ACW game in 15mm. They ran the game at WMMS last week and wanted to finish this time. It took most of the evening to set up but they got a couple of turns in.


(Pork sausages anyone?)



In the 'Colin Salt' room they were preparing for Salute. They will be running a fantasy / dungeon crawl participation game using the Wargods of Aegyptus rules.



The 'Grognards' were playing a 15mm Napoleonic game using Age of Eagles. I have no idea if this was a historical peninsula action or a work of fiction, I should have asked. The 'Grognards' were the fellas who ran the Spartivento game at WMMS last week.




Finally, in 'the room with no name that I'm aware of' some Bulge action. 15mm FoW. Not my cup of tea but it looks really good.




Imagine how much variety can be found at Stoke Wargames Group when all six rooms are in action!

My WMMS Bargain

I finally got around to taking a shot of the 15mm Celtic village I bought last Sunday. It's very nicely painted but has a little damage to the wattle fencing at the rear. The previous owner has glued a few logs there to give it a sort of 'under construction' look. Still, at £15 I'm not complaining. Now I just need to finish my Punic Wars era Gallic army.

Sunday 10 March 2013

WMMS 2013 - A show report - Part 2

Ok. Here's the rest of the eye candy...

One last shot of the spectacular 28mm SCW game. Drool.


Peter Pig's Square Bashing participation game. 15mm WWI.



War and Conquest demo / participation game. Greek on Greek action in 28mm. (Ooer!)

  
This one was pretty cool. Weird War II in 15mm with Clockwork Goblin's accessory kits and walkers added on to other companies tanks. Brilliant.




Fictional AWI in 28mm from some random BoS.


If this 15mm ACW battle had a name it has been lost in the Mists of Time.


A John Carter on Mars game. No, only joking. A very interesting French in Indo-China game in 10mm using Cold War Commander. It gave Sean 'ideas'.


A gorgeous 28mm Napoleonic skirmish game but, yawn, it was a snorefest with nothing moving that I could see.



Stout fellows from the SWG also put on this 1/3000 WWII naval game. 'Action off Cape Spartivento'.


 
Battlegroup Kursk in 20mm. Another snorefest. The combatants were all only 12" on to the table by home time. What a wasted day. 

 
And finally a FoW game in 15mm with the usual 1914 infantry tactics and wheel to wheel tanks reminding me why I wouldn't touch this game with a barge pole. (Sorry FoW fans...)
 
 
Purchases? A box of Pz IV's in 1/72 from PSC, some paint and a lovely Celtic village in 15mm off the bring and buy. I'll post some shots after I've touched up a little damage... All in all a good day. Thanks Charles for the lift there and to Sean for getting me back.

WMMS 2013 - A show report - Part 1

I trotted off to 'Alumwell' today for a chance to spend some cash at a (reasonably) local show. I've been going to this show, though not always this venue, for years and never been disappointed. It was well attended though not overcrowded. I'm not sure how well some of the traders were doing but I tried to help them out a little...
 
 
The rest of my report is just a succession of eye-candy from the demo games (sorry if your's isn't here, my batteries died).
 
First up, Guildford Courthouse from the AWI in 15mm, put on by a few ex-members of Stoke Wargames Group (SWG).



More AWI from a BoS (bunch of strangers), Gibson Hill in 28mm.
 


Jason and some other nice chaps from SWG put on a Fredericksburg demo (ACW) in 15mm. Good stuff...




Another BoS put on a WWII game using the new Overlord expansion to Battlegroup Kursk in 20mm. Lovely.

 

A rather busy 1st Day at Gettysburg in 28mm from another BoS.


Operation Caravan; the LRDG raid on Barce. In 20mm by a BoS.


Legends of the Old West in 28mm.

 
28mm WWII Bolt Action game in 28mm. Nice.
 

My favourite. 28mm SCW using Empress Miniatures and A World Aflame (?) rules. Gorgeous.



 
That's enough for now. Part 2 to follow. Is there a limit on file storage on these Blogger accounts? I must find out...