Painting challenge 2015 Part I

I'm terrible for getting models painted. I'd consider myself an above average painter. Not brilliant but decent enough. The main problem is my interest often bounces from one system to the next and I rarely finish painting one army before moving on. Like many gamers I own a large number of half painted armies, including the WHFB dwarfs I originally started 8-10 years ago. I find these days that working, having a 1 year old boy and a pregnant wife isn't helping my painting either! Last year I think I only painted about 20 models, and many of them were Space Marines for Skibbcon.

I've recently started getting bits and pieces done in the evening with the GW painting station on my lap and that seems to be helping, even if it is only a small amount done every night.

This year my goal is to get back to these armies and finish them off before I start any major new projects. First off I'm taking some advice I saw online about the best way to finish painting all your models. Stop buying new ones! Therefore this year I've a self enforced buying embargo in place. Will have to see how long that lasts though :-)

I think to see this through, with huge amounts of dwarf and orc and goblin miniatures to be done, I'm going to have to get the main infantry dipped and then concentrate on more detail for character models.

As we are planning to start playing Hail Caesar fantasy (hail Caesar using fantasy army lists) it's the turn of the dwarfs to get painted first. I'll concentrate on getting one division painted at a time. I may even go over some of the early Dwarf models I painted, back when I took up wargaming again after a 15 year break, and give them a coat of dip to add some shading!

The aim for 2015 is to get 200+ points of models painted with the scoring worked out as follows

Infantry 1pt

Medium sized model/scenery 2pts

Large model/ scenery 3pts

Very large model/scenery 5pts

Finishing previous year models 1/2pts
Retouching older models 1/4pts

So far this month I've gotten 40 dwarfs painted, although these were all half painted previously so only half points!

Warhammer Trafalgar

I'll say this first. I love this system. Now before anyone argues against this I'll admit the system isn't without its faults. Firstly, it needs a good few tweaks to make it better and I plan to post these up sometime in the near future. Secondly, it isn't the most historically accurate system. However it is a good place for Napoleonic naval beginners, which we are. It's rules generally try to reflect a historical condition, such as movement of ships, which start from that most downwind first, to reflect the advantage of having the wind gage. Having recently had a brief look at the old Man o' war system I can definitely see the similarities between the systems, but Trafalgar has more emphasis on sailing vessels and wind direction.

A nerdy gaming weekend at JustJohns

So JustJohn had a few people over for the weekend in his purpose built mancave. In attendance was myself, MrSaturday, Cheetor, The Otto Von Bismark and Craig, who has just moved back to Limerick and I'm unsure if he has a blog... Sorry Craig.

A few games were sampled including Man O'War, Bolt Action, Pulp Alley and a number of boardgames. Most of the games this weekend were to introduce new people to systems already played by others and good fun was had by all!

Unfortunately Inquisitor Thrawn and his retinue suffered from a malign curse and fared rather badly in the Pulp Alley game, pretty much getting wounded in every combat they participated and never passing a single health or recover check. Arbitrator Callaghan and Commissar Holt (both ally characters) even lost their lives trying to climb a wall into the ruined temple. Assassin 46, usually a terror in Pulp Alley game, came a cropper as he tried to snipe opponents from cover. Shocking! Below is a series of photographs from the Pulp Alley game.

Pulp alley 40k style

I've recently started playing Pulp Alley with a few others. Its a skirmish game with a bit of munchkin thrown in. Cards can be played to buff your own units or hinder other players and is a good addition. What I love about the system is how generic it is. You can use pretty much any models for it. There's no equipment, everthing is based on stats and the rules for characters can be individually tailored to fit what the model is armed with. In general it's easy to look at a model and wonder what it would be good at. Is it a shooter? Brawler? Sneaker? Thinker?

While I do have some Foundry English chaps to put together for a 1930s Pulp Alley league I'm also getting good use out of random 40k models I've had lying around for ages. It's a good excuse to put them together and get them painted. You only need 5-10 models so it's a painting project you can accomplish in a short period of time. It is also really easy to put together sci-fi terrain and having played 40k for years that's something I have lying around in abundance.

Recently I put together Inquisitor Thrawn and his retinue from random models I had collected for various reasons. These currently include an imperial fist, vindicare assassin, arbite, commissar and cyberhound. I've a daemonhost and a few old style metal imperial guard yet to finish and they will be added to the warband, although it's doubtful all models will make it on to the table at one time. Unfortunately in their last outing they fared rather poorly as the dice gods were against me that day, but that means they can only get better!

Painting Crimson Fists

The Crimson Fists are a popular chapter for space marines...and rightly so! They were on the original artwork for Rogue Trader back in the day and have one of the best back stories, with them being almost wiped out in recent history (galactically speaking) during the battle for Rynn's World.

Finished Assault Squad

A new blog

Having found a new lease of life for wargaming recently I find that my tastes have changed dramatically. 40k no longer seems to hold the appeal it did and I'm concentrating on different systems that require less money and time to get an army together. Some of these are historical, some are fantasy and some are sci-fi. That doens't mean this blog will ignore the 40k game. It's more going to be a series of ramblings and musings about whatever I'm working on at the time, be it models, scenery or simply reading a new rulebook. Welcome and I hope this blog sufficiently records my sometimes rather random wargaming focus.

To kick it off however I thought I'd dig up an old post I put up online a long time ago. painting Crimson Fists!