Grey Ghosts

Today is the first day of my post-Christmas holidays!  My wife and daughter  have plans for today so my plan is an all day paint-a-thon!

I've got TONS of gaming scheduled over the next 2 days (D&D Ravenloft, Warzone, Pulp City & This Is Not A Test) so my plan is to use all my free time today to paint!

The first of my two projects that were half done before the day started are my Grey Ghosts for Warzone.  I haven't checked out the updated rules yet but in the previous edition Grey Ghosts had 2 special rules that made them really good on the table top.  The first was a drastically increased chance of scoring critical hits and the second (which I thought was way cooler) was that any unit taking even a single wound from Grey Ghost shooting had  to take a morale test.

The figures themselves are pretty basic being intended to be low-key infiltrators so I went with some pretty basic flat colours and washed out the gun metal even more than I normally would.  My next 2 units for Warzone will inject a bit more colour into my Imperial Army.

If all goes according to plan today (does it ever?) this will be my first of 4 projects done today.

-Jay

Imperial Barracudas

My hobby ping-pong between Pulp City and Warzone continues.

Back to Warzone today for another unit of flying Imperial soldiers.  The Imperial Barracudas are the new version of the old Rams Air Cavalry.  When miniatures get updated or get re-done people's opinions can vary on whether the new version is an improvement or not, in this case there's not much of an issue.  The old Rams Air Cav were one of the most maligned sculpts in Heartbreaker's range.  The pilot was in a squatting pose with a look on his face that really sold the total image of  someone struggling on the toilet.  If that wasn't enough the rocket/jet pack was positioned like something that would crash Wil E Coyote into the side of a mountain.

As you can see the new version is dynamically posed and the equipment manages to hit a balance between fantastic and functional looking.

I've got one more unit to get done (Grey Ghosts) for my Warzone game at the end of the month and other than that my focus should (emphasis on 'should') be Pulp City for the next week or so.

-Jay

Imperial reinforcements have arrived!

A little while back I painted an Imperial starter box for Warzone, since then I've been building the odd thing here and there and contemplating what to add to my small force.

After shooting a video with Ash for his channel Guerrilla Miniature Games Prodos decided to hook us up with more models to play with so it looks like instead of my scattershot "buy what I can" approach I'll be fielding an Imperial Regular Army force.

Big thanks to Prodos and I'm hoping to  be showing these off painted within the next 2 weeks.

-Jay

Back to the future for more Warzone!

During my lunch break today I built my next Warzone unit; the Imperial Special Forces.

Prodos makes a number of specific special forces units but they also produce this generic special forces box to represent all of their lesser known elite units.  The weird part of the experience for me with this box is that I found the trenchers from the starter box to fit together extremely well and these guys were a lot more fussy and were not at all easy to get together in spite of having the same basic fits and builds as the trenchers.

These guys will probably end up being a bit of a speed painting project as I really want to get past them and get to my unit of Blood Berets and Blood Beret themed Doomtroopers.

So now that I've built theses I have about 5 separate projects on my desk fighting for my attention.  I'm as curious as you all are to see what I actually put paint to next...

-Jay

Greyhound light support vehicle

One of the great things about the Mutant Chronicles universe is that it has this really cool unique look based on a lot of military ideas being cut and paste jobs from the two World Wars with some sci-fi/techie bits added on after the fact.

The Greyhound is the Imperial mega-corporation's version of the Commonwealth's Universal Carrier of the second World War.

Personally I think this small vehicle is the best piece in the Imperial starter box but the big question is how it will stack up against the Bauhaus starter box's robo-suit-thingy.

Tune in next week to see if the Imperial forces were able to win one for King and Corporation or if the forces of the evil Space Kaiser (I'm sure that's a thing) were able to thwart me.

-Jay

Second Imperial Trencher Officer done!

First up I just want to declare that I've decided today and tomorrow are hobby days so if I don't get projects for at least three different games done I'm going to be pretty bummed.

The hardship that is my never-ending war against banners and flags continues but I'm going to consider this skirmish a draw.  I have never been very good at these things so my end goal is always for is to look (reasonably) clean and (reasonably) good from a distance.  I don't think I won, but I don't think I necessarily lost on this fig either.
You be the judge...

That means I'm one model away from having my Imperial starter box done and then I'll be ready to throw down against the evil forces of the Bauhaus mega-corporation on Friday!

-Jay

First (of two) Imperial NCOs done!

My plan was to be checking in today and showing you two painted NCOs for the Imperial corporation....well one out of two ain't bad?

My second NCO is just as completed as this one but unfortunately also has a flag (not a banner, an actual flag) that is lagging behind the schedule.  For my first WarZone game (countdown, that's 6 days away) I need to complete that flag and then paint my universal carrier.

Tomorrow morning before work I'm going to try to get two more Broken Contract figures done, and then circle back to that flag after work.

-Jay

First two Imperial Trencher squads done!!

Of my first two time-sensitive projects from the start of the week the first one is now done!!

Ten Imperial Trenchers for WarZone.  Trenchers are the basic line infantry of the Imperial (British themed) mega-corporation.

Once I get the two Imperial NCOs and Universal Carrier I have done my buddy Ash and I will be giving the new beta playtest rules for WarZone a try.

The Trenchers were cool figures to paint although I have to admit I struggled a bit with their Imperial shoulder flashes.  Either those things used to big bigger on Heartbreaker's metal models for WarZone or in my old age (this is way more likely) I'm starting to really struggle with fine details.

I've got some daytime activities planned with Zoe and then hopefully I'll get my four Brahmin finished tonight.

-Jay

Return of the hobby grab bag!

Hobby A.D.D. is back in full effect!

This week I have six different projects on my desk for five different games.  Two of them I MUST finish before the end of the week because they are for games that are looming on the horizon, the other four I really need to get done before I can move on and do some other things.

First up, I have got to finish my Imperial Trenchers for WarZone.

The Beta just got released for Prodos' updated version of WarZone so my buddy Ash and I are going to try to get a game in this month.  To do that I need to finish these ten figures and then get three more done from scratch.

Next in terms of priority is four Brahmin for This Is Not A Test.

There is a caravan scenario I want to play and if you've played the Fallout games the Brahmin is very distinctly Fallout-ish.  The Brahmin miniatures are from Armorcast under their license with Lance & Laser.

After that I need to get started on my Black Squadron security forces for Broken Contract.

Broken Contract is a new sci-fi miniatures game that went through a successful Kickstarter last year and has some really awesome models.  In addition thematically (big corporations vs the little guy) it seems very in the now.

After that will be Johnny Atomic for This Is Not A Test.

Johnny is a wasteland radio DJ and alongside Gas-Mask Girl is one of the semi-official mascots for the game.  It's impossible to tell from this picture (sorry) but he's a fantastically detailed model that is covered in cool post-apocalyptic survivor bits.

My final two projects are definite maybes because I don't need them for any game soon.  So if they're not done by Monday they'll be moving to the back of the line again.

First up on the B-list (actually that's really appropriate in this case) is Catman!

Catman is one of my favourite DC Comics characters and is the alpha if not the actual leader of the Secret Six.  I'm super-stoked about finishing Catman and playing with him at some point but I don't have any Batman games planned so he's not a priority right now.

Next up is Sophia Illmora for Anima Tactics.

I've never actually played Anima Tactics but my plan was to use Sophia as a replacement for my apprentice in Professor Vitale's Frostgrave warband.  I may be changing plans and starting a new warband so I may or may not need her but I'd like to finish painting her eventually.

So that's what this week looks like hobby-wise.  I have a track record of NEVER completing all the things I lay out in these WIP posts so hopefully the fact that there's a couple things in there I don't really need means I can at least get the relevant stuff done.

-Jay

Imperial Trenchers - WIP

I feel like I should start off by saying everything old is new again.

When Target Games first brought out WarZone a skirmish war-game set in the Mutant Chronicles universe in the 90's I was a huge fan.  A lot of people just saw it as a 40K knock off but I really liked the cyberpunk inspired take on the whole 'grimdark' concept.

Over the last few years I have shown some of my first and second generation WarZone figs and I have dabbled in jumping back into actually playing.  A few weeks ago my friend Ash and I actually made it as far as debating whether we were going to play the first or second edition of the rules.  Then the plan changed a little bit.

Prodos Games (who are producing the current/new version of WarZone) sent Ash two of the starter boxes to show off on his YouTube channel Guerrilla Miniature Games.  So instead of jumping in the way back machine we're painting up two new forces to play with.

I'll be doing the forces of the Imperial Mega-Corporation.  The Imperial background and imagery is all inspired by the United Kingdom with the Trenchers being a clear throw back to to the BEF of World War 1.

The starter box comes with the two squads I've started as well as two officers and a small vehicle reminiscent of the commonwealth armies Universal Carrier of World War 2 (those should be making an appearance here next week).

I'm really impressed with the quality of the figures.  To be honest when I first heard they were resin I was a little hesitant as I have had some bad experiences with resin in the past.  What's great about the Prodos figures (the ones I've got so far at least) is that most of the pieces are thick enough that bending or warping aren't an issue.  The detail is crisp, the models are light-weight and I didn't spend any more time prepping them than I would have a plastic or metal squad.

Looking forward to finishing these up this weekend and hopefully getting some games in soon!

-Jay