Too many ideas...

Ok, so the first few posts of any blog aren't often the best. Over the next week I hope to get some pictures up of one of my first projects and get some helpful comments and feedback from the blogosphere and its occupants. Until then this blog feels aimless; so in an attempt to put something vaguely useful I've decided to post some links, with a few words of comment, about favourite sites I visit or loiter at. (Interspersed will be any more pics of past stuff I've found).

My WHFB 3rd ed. homemade giant: using a catachans face and arms, skaven legs, miscellaneous bits and a good lump of green stuff and procreate.

Concept minis for my WHFB Half Scale project. I just picked a range of different models, based and painted them to get an idea of how they'd look. I was happy.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd ed.

First up is Realm of Chaos 80's blog. This is an excellent blog following, in general one persons re-immersion into the true spirit of warhammer: Orlygg. Orlygg's approach and reminiscences about the Oldhammer gaming experience (using older rules editions of WHFB, mainly 3rd, to play the game as it was initially envisioned) are insightful and he deftly provides some interesting articles about the early GW artists and sculptors, background and thoughts behind what I loved so much as a child and ultimately became a goliath of the gaming world. It's a characterful read and will put you into contact with one of the key people in the UK oldhammer scene.

Elven Champion on steed. Needs a final detail.

Shield emblem and horses bum.

If you're interested in Oldhammer then check out the Realm of Zhu another key blog which includes the Oldhammer contract: a document detailing the spirit and intention of oldhammer gaming. A brilliant resource for all things oldhammer is the Oldhammer Forum. Through this you can get in touch with the movers and shakers of the oldhammer revival scene (and some truly excellent artists).

My finished giant with dragon skull, horse barding and small hogtied pig on rear. All started because I had some spare putty and bits in front of me. One evening later... seems very shiny but has since been dullcoated.

I'm not likely to play alot of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 28mm. Even with 3rd being comprised of smaller forces with a more maneuverable, skirmish feel. I do a variety of fantasy stuff - mainly lovely old school dwarves but these will probably be based for Advanced Heroquest. The bulk of my 3rd WHFB battles will be played in half scale using 10mm individually based warmaster miniatures and a few lovely additions by Copplestone Castings.

Orc Boar Boy - Individually based and sadly now OOP GW Warmaster model. 

The oldhammer chaps organise a tournament day (it's not a tournament though as the games don't really play that way) at the headquarters of the excellent Foundry Miniatures in Nottingham. Whilst I was unable to attend the first event, I have every intention of cobbling together something interesting and trying to get up for the next on the 9th and 10th of August this year.

Really nice Copplestone wizard in familiar garb.

Warhammer 40k

Whilst my comments above will lead you to some excellent old school Rogue Trader painting and gaming not everyone is stuck in a time vortex like me. I have tried 5th edition and found it ok, I was put off by the amount I'd have to spend, some of the gamey players/features and to be honest the daunting amount of work to get my squats to a useable state. I've got 6th and simply wait to see how GW present the new Imperial Guard (sorry Astra Militarium accordingly) codex. If I can make a playable force that has charm and character then it may be the boost needed to motivate me back into 40k gaming.

Some (very few) of my expansive heavily converted squat 40k force.

Until then I regularly stare at Bell of Lost Souls (not the forum, just the articles/comments). Be warned this site feels very commercial, and is primarily patrolled by some zealous american tourney players (they're not all like that just be aware) and can be very WAAC (Win at all cost) and off-putting. This doesn't mean it doesn't have some useful articles; just that they need to be sifted and sieved mentally to remove the sometimes exacerbating bias of some the writers. If nothing else I always check it out on a friday for the invaluable Outside the Box articles by Table Top Fix covering a great range of recent releases for a variety of systems.

Storm Raven gunship converted for the vertically impaired.

Other things

Just to finish off a quick run down of some other worthwhile sites:

The Miniatures Page is a great resource of news and forums covering all niches of gaming and is well worth a look.

Board Game Geek is an excellent site covering games of all types but predominantly board based action. I've used this to research whether games are worth getting, get reasonable valuations as guides for eBay purchases and buy things. Full of lots of helpful and informed gamers.

Warlord Games forums are a brilliant resource for all their games but my particular interest is in Bolt Action. I'll be playing in 15mm and expect my first proper posts to concern this. 

Battlefront miniatures is the Flames of War publishers website and even if you ignore the option to purchase here, as cheaper vendors are available, the site holds a wealth of knowledge about each miniature and gives newcomers a good insight into WW2.

Peter Pigs miniatures is the UK 15mm miniature company I'm predominantly using for my Bolt Action forces and Martin's site is well worth a visit. 

It should be noted that I'm not affiliated with any of these sites and all opinions are simply my own, and thus dubious. Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll put up a post with some progress in a couple of days.

Thanks

BALM