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

Storm Trenchers

Back to Warzone!

I'm getting ready to play some larger games of Warzone at the end of the month and to that end I have 3 new units to paint between now and the 30th of December.  First up I finished my Imperial Storm Trenchers today.

The Storm Trenchers are basically regular Trenchers geared up for close in fighting with shotguns and explosives who have jet packs to help them close the distance between themselves and their opponents quickly.  I think the models are really cool and original and I have to confess that if I'd been designing miniatures with the World War One British Expeditionary Force as their inspiration I don't think jet packs would have crossed my mind.

So that's jet packs....I think full-on flight packs will be next!

-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

Hobby Grab Bag: Now with 100% less theme!

I'm all over the map this week...and this stuff doesn't even include the Lord Of The Rings Elves I'm trying to finish....

First up I've made a little bit of progress on my Pathfinder Goblins.  I'm contacting my players tonight about picking a date to play so I need to get serious and get these guys finished.

Next a friend of mine recently let me look through his Warzone Resurrection rules so I'm eager to play!  I've got a Capitol army list I can use and the Imperial rules aren't out yet but a new version of a game feels like it calls for a new army so I've decided to start a Bauhaus army.  To be 100% honest I always knew I was going to end up painting a Bauhaus army when I started painting my 'space fascists'  but now I've got an actual structure to apply it to.  I'm going to start off with 600 points and I'm kicking that off by painting 2 squads of Hussars.  These should fit in with the Wargames Factory Greatcoats I painted awhile back so more to come on this shortly.

This next project is less motivated by short term need or game use and is more about trying some new products out.  I need an unarmed Steamjack for my Witchfire Trilogy game (eventually) but when I was at my local comic shop last weekend they had the new Citadel Technical Paints in.  I want to try out the Nihilakh Oxide and the Typhus Corrosion and this fig will let me do both!  The figure itself is a Cygnar Heavy Jack from the Grind game.

The last figure I want to call attention to is extra special.  My 7 year old daughter has decided she wants to paint her first miniature to play a game with and after deciding that a magical fey princess is the perfect character for her try out a stripped down version of D20 with we picked out this Ex Illis model from their core game.  She'll be getting painted up tonight in our first daddy-daughter painting session!

Hopefully I'll have some finished models to show off before the week is out.

-Jay

Immortal Brush Entry 1: DONE!

Part 1 of my 3 part plan to enter Strategies Games & Hobbies Immortal Brush Tournament has gone according to plan (which is great because part 2 fell apart.. literally, more on that later).  I did some touch-ups and changed the colour of the body armour on 5 of my space fascists and I'm quite satisfied.

I added highlights to the eye-lenses on the gas masks, cleaned up the bases a bit and repainted the body armour a MUCH lighter shade of gray (Dawnstone vs Skavenblight Dinge).  The overall effect is quite striking but unfortunately doesn't photograph particularly well (still being multiple shades of gray).  This will now be my new paint scheme for my space fascists and when time presents itself I will be going back and bringing my other finished figs from this collection up to date with these colour changes.

I'm glad part 1 went well because as I mentioned part 2 fell apart, those Celt figures actually fell apart while they were sitting untouched on my painting table.  I had assembled 3 units last week (5 Celts, 5 Sanguinary Guard and 6 new Greatcoat troopers) and when I came home from work that night I found them standing stock still with various arms, weapons and upper torsos just lying next to them.  The culprit appears to be my plastic cement because all the damaged figures had globs of the stuff crusted on the busted joints but none of it appears to have actually melted and fused the plastic.

I'm undecided at this point if I'm going to build another 5 Celts using a different glue, or if I might just pick a different unit altogether.

Stay tuned and find out!

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag - Painting Contest & Another Blood Angel!

Hi all,

I've been a bit scatter shot hobby-wise again but I'm doing 2 (maybe 3) projects with a hard deadline of October 1st.

I've decided to participate in the Immortal Brush Competition at Strategies Games & Hobbies in Vancouver BC.  I'll be entering 2 categories for sure (5 man squad sci-fi/modern and 5 man squad fantasy/historical) and hopefully a 3rd (one of the large model categories time permitting).

For my sci-fi/modern entry I've decided to go a slightly different route than usual.  I'm going to take some figs that I speed painted awhile back and fix them up to a higher standard of painting.  I'll be starting with 5 of my space fascists from Wargames Factory's Greatcoat Troopers box.  I've been planning on these multi-use figures standing in for Bauhaus in Warzone and Viridians in VOID/Urban War, they could also work as Imperial Guard in Warhammer 40,000.
The picture below is how they looked when I pulled them out of my figure case this morning...not bad but definitely not paint contest worthy.  They'll probably get finished first because they represent the least amount of work.

Next up are 5 Celt Warriors from Warlord Games Celts box.  I've wanted to do historical gaming of this era forever but the amount of stuff I would have to paint has always seemed quite daunting.  Lately a few of my friends have discovered some skirmish level games that might work so and old idea has become new again!  These will get done second because I do want to get them finished and I think my best shot in a paint competition will always be "unit" categories because that doesn't seem to be where the elite painters enter.

And last up I am 90% done my next Blood Angel, the Librarian from Space Hulk.  This is just a continuation of my ongoing effort to get an actual Blood Angels army done in 2013.  I might actually also use the large model category in the painting competition to get a larger Blood Angels model done (like a dreadnought) but if that's the case I'll definitely have to run out and buy one this week.

There you have it, bit of a mess but I'm enjoying it!

-Jay

Did my absence make your hearts grow fonder?

Wow, a full week without a post...don't think I've done that before....

Last week was a bit of a write-off hobby-wise.  No dramatic problems just came down with a bit of the flu and ended up sacking out every night right after work.

Even though I didn't finish anything last week I figured I'd throw a post up here just to let everyone know I was still here and more hobby-goodness is on the way.

So until something actually gets finished enjoy a work-in-progress shot of my Capitol Free Marines.

-Jay

Some of Big Bob Watts' friends

 

Mitch Hunter

Today I painted up my second Capitol Doomtrooper; Mitch Hunter.  For most people who have a passing familiarity with the Mutant Chronicles universe Mitch Hunter is the main guy you tend to see on the cover of rulebooks and he has been a staple presence in every game (board, miniature, card, RPG) release.

The figure itself is very cool on it's own merits.  He has loads of gear and pouches so he is a bit more detailled than alot of Warzone figures of his original era but he isn't overdone (as special characters can sometimes be) to the extent that he doesn't fit in with the army he's meant to lead.

I'm very excited about finishing up some of the older Warzone figures I still had kicking around so I can dive whole-hog into the new stuff (which looks excellent) when it comes out.

-Jay

Doom Trooper/Sea Lion Officer Mitch Hunter

 

Big Bob Watts

I can't wait and I can't resist...the other night I pulled out my box of remaining unpainted Warzone Capitol models and started working on them.

I've got some Free Marines and Sea Lions I'm doing as ongoing projects (16 Free Marines and 12 Sea Lions so more than a quick session worth of work) but in the meantime I've started doing some of the special character models I never got around to last time.

My favourite thing about Big Bob Watts is that he takes 'heroic' sci-fi figures to the Nth degree, if you're going to have a ludicriously oversized weapon then you should really go for broke!

I'm doing my best at matching the colour scheme with the Capitol models I painted in the long ago time.  When I've got a few done I'll mix them up together and see if they fit.

-Jay

One man fire support team!

 

...just in case you were still unclear on the size of those guns.

 

 

A Blast From The Past: Warzone-Capitol Infantry

The internets are all abuzz with activity about the return of Warzone on February 15th.  Warzone was probably one of my favourite games when it first came out and I find that the background, imagery and artwork hold up really well to this day.

As I mentionned in one of my previous posts I do plan on revisting my Imperial Army and getting some more paint on that and I do have some Bauhaus stuff I was going to merge with my earlier space-facists (no idea when I'll get around to that mind you) but in the meantime I thought I'd show off my finished Capitol Infantry from a few years ago.  I had done these figures about 8-9 years ago when I wanted to field a force none of my opponents were playing and I basically speed painted them over the course  a weekend so the paint jobs are pretty basic but I think they hold up reasonably well as troopers fighting in a trench-like landscape sometime in the dark future.

Hope you like them!

-Jay

K-9 Handler

 

Infantry Officers

 

Light Infantry Troopers

 

Light Infantry Specialists

 

Heavy Infantry Troopers

 

Heavy Infantry Specialists

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another blast from the past.....the forgotten forces.....

To properly see the humour in this situation I hope you'll all indulge me in a longer than usual pre-amble to today's content.

As a veteran painter and gamer I found over the years that I make 2 distinct and separate types of hobby purchases; stuff I'm buying to paint and use in that game/tournament/con/league that is already scheduled, and stuff I'm buying because I think it's cool and even though I don't "need it" I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually (affectionately known by most gamers as their backlog).  And so my tale of confusion begins....
Around 20 years ago I was working in my FLGS when my boss informed me he wanted me to start pushing a new upstart game called WarZone.  WarZone was a 28mm sci-fi game set the dark future of the Mutant  Chronicles game universe.  As soon as I read the rulebook I was hooked!  It was like 40K meets the rapture with a cyberpunk ashetic laid over the whole thing.  I presented the book and promo materials to my in-store game groups and started taking orders, personally I was the most excited by the Imperial Army....unfortuantely....so was everyone else.  I realized the game was going to tank in our shop if we didn't showcase other forces and figures so I put aside the Imperial figures I had ordered for myself (knowing someday I would get back around to them) and instead painted up a Dark Legion (zombie, mutant, chaos-monsters) force so all my customers would have a force to play against.  The games were fun and I enjoyed my Dark Legion force (and got plenty of use out of it over the years) but I was still regretting not painting my Imperials.  After a couple of years I moved out west and found a new group of gamers who I hoped I could coral into WarZone....and they all wanted to play Imperial as well....so I painted a new Capitol Army and carried on.
Fast forward to last week.  While working on my Fallout project I cam across some remnants from my old Capitol army that I knew would be great for my friend Stan's NCR force, as I'm no longer at a place in my hobby-life where I have to get things done for a deadline I figured it was time to dig out my old Imperial Blood Berets and give them the paint jobs they'd waited so patiently for all theses years.  It took me about an hour to prep the figures

See, all ready to go!

 

 

 

Then I remembered I really should finish my Fallout mercs and that I would have plenty of time to paint my Blood Berets next week, so all I had to do was tuck these guys away in a figure case until I had time for them.  So, I dug out a figure case to put them and found this...

If it's unclear, that exactly what I just decided to do, only twice as much, already painted.

 

 

So not only have I already had this idea once, I had completely forgotten that I had done it.  On one hand I cursed my stupidity, on the other hand if I did paint the 7 guys I just assembled I would have a playable force almost right away.  I thought maybe instead though I should add some Golden Lions.  Just as I was about to start taking mold lines off a pristine fresh from the blister packs squad of Golden Lions I suddenly thought; "gee I wonder what else is in that figure case?"

Not completely finished but maybe another 2 hours worth of work.

 

So I guess the moral of my story is; if you've been doing this for 20+ years and you think a project would be cool....just double check and make sure it's the first time you're thinking that.

-Jay