For the love of plastic.

So due to inexorable and boring life stuff our gaming weekend got cancelled and has had to be postponed for a couple of weeks. As I had tidied away my BA 15mm painting station (looks like a mini motorpool now) I decided to have a poke at a different scale and material. First of all whilst shoring and propping my lead mountain after a mammoth eBay purge (only part 1 and still doesn't seem to have reduced much) I found my ogres.

My four ogres for WHFB Realms of Chaos; One lord or character and three general hench ogres. I want them to be usable as much as possible from empire mercenaries to chaos.

I knocked these up last year in order to play in the Realms of Chaos game at The Foundry in Nottingham. The force I'd generated had a chaos dwarf, an ogre chaos lord/champion, 3 more ogres (his retinue) some wolves and a chaos warrior. Unfortunately shortly after starting on the ogres I realised I wouldn't be able to attend due to conflicting dates for work. So back they went, until now.

The only model to get anywhere near finished. My ogre lord, there's still some bits to do but not much.

It's a toss up between a ogre sized crossbow and the tied up human from the stone horn kit, to fit across his back, may investigate a magnetic solution.

You can just see the brass wrings I made and added to the converted sword. As there traditional use in martial arts they are distracting to the opponent and will blunt or damage weaker weapons.

The Hench ogres need some more armour and straps to finish them.

Plates from the stone horn kit give them a TMNT feel.

They're made up of spares and excess bits from a commission and anything else I could scrounge together. None of them are quite done but I managed to get the feel I wanted after an evening of cutting and gluing. The next evening I did the sculpting on the ogre lord. And that was their 15 minutes of fame.

I don't know what I'll use them for but I'm sure I'll think of something.

This is a creature for skirmish games made the other night, from a gaunt and a gargoyle and another set of tyranid claws (want to say genestealer rending claws). I've got enough parts to make 10 of these little beasties and they remind me of the Rogue Trader Tyranid picture (but with added wings).

Last but not least my wife bought something of her choice (from a range of stuff I fancied but never felt justified enough myself to impulse buy) for my 40K Squat force: some Ogryns. I do have some originals and I was reticent about the look of the new ones. I have never sworn so much at 3 plastic models.

I incorrectly attached the wrong left arm to the first ogryn and it has welded itself together perfectly by the time I noticed. Every other arm was a hassle from hear onwards. I didn't make the box standard ones either as I'm not a fan of the look. Whether this had anything to do with the calamitous build I don't really know. The instructions are plentiful I just strayed inadvertently and the verbal abuse began.

Luckily I like what I came out with: two troopers and a bonehead/Nork Deddog stand in. Just need another couple (nearly £30!) and I'll have a nice characterful unit to shield my stunties.

Thank you for taking the time,

BALM

Trucks, a Stug, a Wirbelwind and lots of eBaying

Nice and brief. Below are some more catch up photos of what I've been doing recently.

The Germans were famous in WW2 for formation driving (Not a real fact)

I wish I knew how I'd managed to get one a different tone to the others, must have missed a step. But that's OK because it's just another of the 50 shades of Dunkelgelb.

I may have gone overboard with the mud but it was interesting to see what was possible. If I decide I don't really like them they'll be sent to the Eastern Front.

The mud on the trucks and other vehicles is my attempt to add weathering thats visible at a gaming distance. Certainly Piers Brand has little to fear from me! The mud is GW Astrogranite Texture paint, then dabbed with a Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash and some touches of Typhus Corrosion. They were then sealed with Army Painter Matt Varnish and had a highlight of Terminatus Stone. The rust is Model Mates Rust effect.

Behold! I even had the patience to put the original Balkenkreutz on behind the Schurzen.

My original FoW Stug III had a terminal accident and so was replaced with this lovely PSC one. 

 The good thing about WW2 vehicles is they were varied in tones and colours and few colour pictures exist, leaving the less grognardy of us a bit of lee way to our final schemes. The Camouflage was done using PSC Dunkelgelb spray, masked with Blu Tac and then sprayed with Army Painters Army Green.

I made the crewmen from the terribly miscast gunner of the original stug. I re-sculpted his body and gave him a Peter Pig head. The commander is just Procreate and another head (including a tiny sculpted headset and binoculars).

Doesn't look like a fun place to be.

Putting hi-res pics of your miniatures on the net is a sure way to drive yourself crazy with painting OCD. Luckily everything looks acceptable to me (when not 2x the size on my mac) from a gaming distance.

 Wirbelwinds: the name is enough for me to buy it. Now if I could get a wirbelwind with a nerbelwerfer I'd be happy.

As part of my ongoing hobby purge I'm trying to streamline my collection. There are now a considerable number of items on eBay from my lead mountain. They can be found here.

If you do bid on my items and actually read this poorly updated thing then send me a message after winning and I'll try and give you an even better postal discount or maybe something for free.

Thanks for taking the time,

BALM

Trapped by my hobby stockpile

After the last entry I made a tragic mistake, having heard a rumbling sound on the east face of Mt. Lead (and instead of running for safety) I stupidly investigated. As the hobbylanche descended upon my pitiful frame I realised my time had come and a strange peace settled upon me. Waking up some hours later in the pitch black I was shocked to be alive. Wasting no time I started tunneling in what I thought was the right direction, stopping only to snack on some clump foliage and flock found growing in subterranean depths. Over a month later I emerged dazed, weak and determined that it wouldn't happen again. With the expert help of a team of entirely imaginary dwarfs I started to excavate the spoil heaps left behind. Days of imaginary back breaking toil later there is a clear route to my desk and computer and more importantly I have a massive load of stuff for eBay.

It's not that I ever really stop my hobby love (although it has come close a couple of times recently) and even though I haven't blogged about my armies of little men; things have progressed.

As a quick round up there are a few pics below of some of what I've been working on with more to come. My regular opponent is coming up this weekend for an epic (3000pts) game of Bolt Action and hopefully this will inspire me to progress and share more hobby stuff.

A set of Dragons Teeth tank traps for CoC.

Barbwire for CoC

A destroyed section of barbed wire

This is a selection of terrain features I've started for CoC (and BA if they add rules for them). The Barbed wire is made from a Flames of War medium base and cocktail sticks. The wire is Gale Force 9 15mm barbed wire. Brilliantly CoC use Barbed wire in 6" by 2" areas which is almost exactly the same size as three bases side by side. I also made two destroyed sections for engineers to cut through or a tracked vehicle to roll over. They've actually had more grass/flock added since this picture. Not pictured is a set of 6 barbed wire on spanish riders (each on a small FoW base) that cover the same standard area. The dragons teeth are just foam cut roughly to size and then surfaced using vallejo pumice.

My three Zvesda trucks to transport my small germans.

The bench arrangement seems impractical (if not dangerous) but it was the set up most likely to be seen in this truck, although the two parallel benches of other models seems more sensible.

I decided to have a poke at my trucks as they were only £2.75 each and the canvas back they come with was a bit too regular and angular for my tastes. After an evenings fiddling I made three variations using procreate, wire and coffee stirrers. I'm quite pleased with the result, I should mention that although cheap, the kits can be fiddly and delicate, needing patience and sometimes a little blind faith to assemble.

With a mega game on the horizon I'm going to attack some of my german motor pool and see what I can get done for the weekend.

Thank you for taking the time,

BALM.

Advanced Heroquest and old lead.

Nice and short: some Island of Blood box set Skaven for AHQ and some old citadel lead adventurers and heroes to face them.

My WIP Warpfire Thrower.

I don't have an original Warpfire thrower and the IoB one is really ugly and flat. It looks like Hasbro had already taken over. But with some Skaven cunning, bits of an awful rat ogre and some procreate I set about making it mine. Needs a little work but I looking forward to OSL'ing it if I can.

My skaven Warlord. Hopefully his armour colour and fur will make him recognisable in a horde.

Some of the Skaven, including a severely directionally challenged champion.

Aenur Sword of Twilight (Mordheim not vampires) The Moon Duke and a Thug (My Witch-finder's man of persuasive means)

A dwarf scout, a human scout and a templar all early Citadel.

Possibly my favourite dwarf model. Not too GW and nicely Tolkien. This chap is what I think of when I think "fantasy". And he's packing lots of weaponry.

Human Scout and Chaos Dwarf both repaired.

Both of these models have been in my collection for years (childhood) but have always been broken and clogged with some old, manky paint. Biostrip sorted them right out and with the addition of a bow for the ranger/scout and a mace head for the dwarf they were reborn. The mace is from a spare Rackham Confrontation Goblin Ashigaru and fits in perfectly. The bow is made out of finecast sprue and was FOE's excellent idea. A lot of people don't like Finecast but I discovered that it's really useful, and can be carved easily, and I will be keeping it for any future projects.

A small selection of my adventurers.

  

A range of suitable heroes I dug out from a couple of roses tins. There is more somewhere........ seem to have a dwarf fetish.

 So more 15mm to do (scenery and figures), Rats to base and then some 28mm to paint, My warlord marines need their final gear check and a couple of bits of procreate'ing I'd missed and they'll be ready to paint. Much to do but I'm actually feeling like I'm getting somewhere.

Thank you for taking the time,

BALM.

Some cowboys and a windmill.

I've painted up some Peter Pig cowboys recently to use as pretty counters on the game Gunslinger by Avalon Hill. Gunslinger is a fast paced Western-era shootout game, and it doesn't use dice. Instead all results are determined through cross referencing the information found on the card at the top of the draw pile.

My Marshall and Sheriff with mandatory big moustaches and both carrying invisible bag pipes. Or they both have a stitch.

 The characters actions are assigned by the player in the form of cards from your permanent hand. Each character has a different selection of the cards available making them all feel like individuals with different strengths and weaknesses. The turn is split into 5 phases and each action card takes a number of phases before being performed (there are some that take 1 phase like draw, cock etc) and are set down at the start of the turn and everybody reveals what they are doing phase by phase. This makes gunfights simultaneous and bloody. This is a game that takes nerve (as much as the death of a cardboard chap can provoke at least) as aiming takes time and you don't know if the other players will shoot first. Often gunfights are over in a few seconds in real time , and it's rare anyone gets out scot free.

I have two identical chaps in the same pose (but bent by me for variety) and painted in similar colours as generic cowboys/bandits/gunslingers. 

It's not too hard to find as a second hand game but it is a much loved classic and often commands a high (ish) price. But worth every penny, cent or phnobian dong. There is an updated fan version here which is streamlined and free to download and print yourself. There's also a vassal module.

Rifles are deadly in gunslinger and far outdistance the best handguns.

I don't know why I forgot to photograph one of them. They all look the same to me (is there a name for cowboy racism?) and the three gunslingers are purposely dressed in blues, browns and a spot of red for one group, and with the law men in greys and black.

I'm going to do a few more when I next need an escape from germans but I'll try and play a simple game of Gunslinger and put it up. I also purchased this rather fine windmill last week for 20% of it's original price. I know it is 1/87 but was wondering if I took the top rail off and modified the doors whether it would look ok.

I've nearly finished some barbed wire and other barriers and they'll be up next. As a final note I went into my FLGS this morning and picked up Human Fighter Male v2 from Otherworld Miniatures. They are nice, classic D&D art fantasy but would mix well with most things. The sculpt is crisp and the pose believable. He'll be lucky enough to get based ASAP as I haven't painted 28mm in ages, especially not a miniature that just made me buy it. He will adventure into many AHQ dungeons.

It's been a long time since I've seen a miniature and impulse bought it at anything other than car boots and bring and buys. 

Thanks for taking the time,

BALM.

Tanks. Just a lot of tanks.

Over the weekend I met up with my FOE at Bovington Tank museum for the wargames show there. It was a strange experience. The traders were dispersed throughout the tank filled museum, sheltering in the cramped niches between vehicles of every kind; like small crustaceans in a tidal pool. And it was almost eerily quiet.

I only bought two things (I found my usual shangri-la, or bring and buy as it's also known, to be somewhat lacking) a copy of Samurai Blades and a 1943 german field manual on defensive emplacements. Weird mix but both brilliant in their own way.

A beautifully modelled game of Sword Beach.

I totally forgot to record who these chaps were so apologies: you table was great.

I'm making the basic defensive options needed in Chain of Command currently and hope to get the finished and up soon. A great deal of trial and error was needed but I'm now getting somewhere. FOE and I decided to get together in the next month or so for an intensive weekend so I need to start thinking of some ideas for our games. I've also relied on his scenery for our recent gaming history, and so feel like I need to be providing more (especially as I've finished a platoon), which is excellent but ultimately, like all true hardcore/deranged gamers I'd imagine, I want my own set. If I can get a few more bits done  now our next games should be starting to look quite pretty.

Another great game.

I also got to meet Piers Brand and see some of the lovely work he's done on the most recent 15mm PSC stuff. It actually looks even better in person. I'm not sure about anything I've painted now. Nice bloke though. Until the sun comes out and I can get some pictures of my fortifications and cowboys please enjoy a few pictures of tanks.

Black Prince

A Valentine and a cruiser.

Panzer III N with transportation jerry can racks.

  

There's a SdKfz 251/B hiding there.

M8 Greyhound.

M10 and an M3A1 Scout car.

A Jagdpanther.

A Tiger II

Thanks for taking the time,

BALM