Pooch's January update

Well, January started with a hiss and a roar- 9 days of holidays will do that to start it! To help me achieve my goals, I decided to set myself the task of making progress against each of my goals each month. In reality, that actually just means that in addition to playing a game, painting some DAK and painting something I already own, I will also be painting something for the historicals, and working on terrain. 

So with January now done, how did I do on making progress towards my goals?

1. Paint a platoon of DAK each month

This month kicks off with one of my favourite units for the DAK- the 15cm Lorraine Schlepper!

Resin models from Battlefront, these are just such nice models, and were an absolute joy to paint. They will be an important part of our Panzershrek army, so it's good to make a start with that list in the right way!

Four guns of 15cm goodness!

But of course, any artillery battery is nothing without an observer team to spot the fall of the rounds for them, and make sure they hit their targets. For the DAK in Flames of War, this task falls to a Panzer II. I converted this one from a Zvezda Panzer II, namely to carve the hatches off, and create some new open hatches from some sprue off cuts to make an open hatch for the observer himself to sit out of. The Panzer II OP also has a cross instead of a number on the turret side, making it even easier to identify which one he is.

"No, no. Fire at where I am pointing, where I am pointing you fools!"

Next up? Panzer IIIs I think!

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

I've made some progress here, completing four Sisters with boltguns, to add to the Retributor Squad, bringing it up to a full allotment of 10 Sisters.

Not the most exciting, and photographing white really shows up how bad my camera is....

But not only did I finish up four sisters, I also finished up a Reaver Titan for Adeptus Titanicus!

On the left, with it's sister Titan on the right

Finishing up this Reaver frees up the table for something larger....

3. Finish up a table of terrain

Big progress on this one! I bought a full set of terrain tiles from Battlekiwi, enough to make a 3x3 city table. Assembly was a dream, and after some airbrushing, I had a full 3x3 base sorted! 

The board as it currently stands

Close up of the subway station

And some zombies having a stroll through the park....

Next month, probably some buildings and things to put on top of it! 

4. Play a game a month, that was different to the last month

Now this was a successful one this month. First up I started with a game of Art de la guerre, starting the Celts off with the quintessential match up of Romans vs Barbarians!

The thin Roman line, about to be hit by a whooooole lot of Celts

And the Celts hit!

The game itself played really well, it felt incredibly cinematic for the barbarian hordes streaming down onto the Romans, overwhelming them with sheer weight of numbers, especially as the Romans got bogged down in multiple rounds of combat.

And then the Celts took on the Seleucids....

Pike doing mean things to Gaestati

Celts doing mean things to Celt-wannabes

And then the Celts took on some Scots!

The Celt first line about to hit some Vikings....

Skirmishers face off. This combat lasted about 4 turns, before the Javelin finally won

So for the first month, I didn't only manage one game, but three games, and of the same game system, this is unheard of outside of a tournament for me! 

Does that mean I now know the rules? No, not really. But I am enjoying the game. I think that ADLG is going to be a game you see much more over the year I think- but just not next month, I already have a plan for that!

5. Paint a new historical army

I've been cracking into painting my 6mm American Civil War Union Army, with the goal of completing a division each month until it is done. I've decided to start with the Union 2nd Corps, so naturally I needed to start with their leader, Major General Winfield Hancock....

Hand painted Corps flag? Check!

And joining Hancock is my first division completed, the 1st Division of the Union 2nd Corps at Gettysburg, led by Brigadier General Caldwell....

Note the Irish Brigade with their green flag

And I finished up some batteries of Union Artillery....

Mixture of Napoleons and Rifled guns

And I also finished up a couple of units of Zouaves, the 146th New York and the 114th Pennsylvanian...

Zouaves in 6mm definitely caused some "why am I doing this" moments....

And I also finished up two units of dismounted Cavalry, two mounted Cavalry, two Horse Artillery and a Commander!

6mm horses I did not enjoy.

Rifled guns, and yellow piping. Must be Horse Artillery!

So my plan of "only" doing one Brigade failed hard. Next up is another Division (or two) of Union Infantry!

And that's it for this month, progress made- 11 months to keep it up!

Progress is good.... but more is expected!

Pooch

Mystery Science Theatre 3000?

MST3K?

Actually Twilight 2000! Our RPG group is kicking off a game of T2K soon, set in Scandinavia after the end of World War III and so I dug out this particular miniature for my character, a Sergeant in the Swedish Tank Corps who drove an S-Tank in the war (because the STRV-103 is still my favouritist modern tank) and Blogger Tank, our DM, has promised me there is a chance we might manage to acquire one. Whether we can scavenge fuel and ammo for it is a different problem!    

 The figure is from Footsore US and I really like it. It came in a pack with a model that appears to be Chuck Norris inspired and a ninja that screams Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow from GI Joe at me. I'm quite looking forward to painting those two up but without any real rationale as to why. I know there's a great Cobra Commander derived model out there and maybe, just maybe, I could make a Cobra Stargrave Crew. That would be fun. 

 Scarif Beach Party

Unsurprisingly, Iden Versio didn't take long to paint. All black models are pretty easy after all. I have some regrets about not using the bare head that came in the pack but not many. 

 

You can see at this stage that the basing material is still not set. She and ID10 will be in the hot water cupboard for a while yet. It's a super hot summer and I could probably leave her on the windowsill but TBH, I know 2 weeks in the hot water cupboard will set the gel medium rock hard. 

I'm still playing around with 500 point lists for an event coming up but the current plan is:

• Iden Versio with ID10 and an Imperial Repeater
  
• Shore Troopers with T21
  
• Shore Troopers with T21
  
• Imperial Special Forces with T21
  
• Scout Speeder Bikes

with a Command Deck of Pulse Scan, Covert Observation, Incapacitate, Concussive Blast, Tactical Strike, Coordinated Fire and Standing Orders.

I'm tempted by Inferno Squad and I could run a pretty lightly upgraded list and ram in a Shore mortar, but at the moment, this is the list with a few upgrades and skills to be decided.

Final stages of the Iconclasm

This is the last photo of the Iconclast legs. I've still got to tidy up the toe plates and do the edge highlights on the trim but these are basically done. 

 I've already started on the torso and head so it'll be WIPs of those for a while. I'm still working through how I want the torso pose to look so I'm not quite in a spot to glue in the shoulder weapon mounts but that'll be soon and then it's home stretch. I'm still trying to think of a sensible way to assemble the groin plates too so i can paint them but that ain't happening so far...

Next Time 

The finished Grenadier Platoon for January and probably the first WIPs of the February platoon. More of the Iconoclast too. It's a bit of a gap between game days at the mo so I'll try and organise something for our next club meeting where I can take some decent piccies of some cool stuff. 

Hard to paint without a decent brush...

 This week didn't start well as my very good W&N Series 7 brush, that I do most of my work with, went absolutely feral and despite my best efforts (and a bunch of product!) I could not get a decent point back and so anything other than block painting with some of my older brushes was all I could do until I could replace it. All in all, not a performant week...

The ongoing Iconclasm

The base is done and I've started on the trim. I finished up highlighting the bone and brass on the Bloodthirster and tidied up the horns and swords on the Bloodletters. Then the process of painting all the bone trim on the armour plates began. Oh my. It's going to be slow. The armour plates on the toes are a PITA and no mistake. But I think it looks great so far.

Deathknight

And done. And I'm fairly happy with how it came out. There are a heap of different red tones that haven't really come up in the photo and the hair is definitely whiter in person. 

More colour correction required. I suspect I need to pick another one out of the pile now!

One more trip to the Scarif Beach Party

I built this up when it arrived with my replacement brush. What a great kit. Three different heads, three different weapons. I decided, having looked at my options, that the Repeater was the coolest choice. I also have some serious nostalgia from playing Deathmatch games of Jedi Knight *way* back in the dim dark past.

So she'll be taking the lead in a 500 point Skirmish thing that Blogger Pel has lined up for late February as what looks like a fairly effective elite army with Shore Troopers and Inferno Squad. I'll be doing her little ID10 Probe Droid on a fully water base too, because it seemed way too fun not to.

Next Time

Good question. I'm a fortnight between club days so it'll be WIPs until then. I'll aim to get Iden Versio done since I need her for the end of February and I know what the drying time on the gel medium is now. The Iconoclast head and torso have gone in the primer so they'll get worked on when I need a break from MORE TRIM. Also I've got a Grenadier Platoon that's demanding finishing for platoon-a-month! 

Definitely a slow week

Going back to work definitely put a dent in the productivity as well as having to do a bit much 1:1 scale real life stuff ruining my hobby time.

ICONOCLASM

Some more steps forward on the Iconclast - getting some paint on the main armour plates and gluing up the parts that can be glued up while I work on some of the outer plates that need to be done separately.

OMG the trim. SO MUCH TRIM. I have enjoyed doing another Bloodthirster and the little horde of Bloodletters swarming around the Greater Daemon and the Titan's feet does look rather good I feel.

The amazing bit is I've made it this far with the legs and the torso is still just a bunch of unpainted sub-assemblies and I still haven't worked out how to pose it yet. That's a next week problem.

Frostgrave Crew

I've also started on another model for my random Frostgrave DnD crew working on mostly red palette on this one as the model is a Death Knight:

She's not done yet as I'm currently trying out some different washes on some different reds to see how they pan out but every day another step forward! After this it'll be a lit of black and bone, although I'm going to go white hair with the black stripe in it a la Susan Sto Helit.

Next Time

I'll be working on Grenadiers over the next week or so as well as doing a bit more building for my TY army (more Bradleys have arrived) and working on one last model for Star Wars Legion. 

Of course I can roll a 2+

 Profoundly incorrect. I cannot. 

On the absolute top of this picture, one of only two I took from my game with Blogger Pel at the club yesterday, my brand spanking new M1 Abrams arriving from reserve, in turn one, on the flanks of his Challengers. 

I destroyed two Challeys. YAY! Well pleased. In return fire, I lost one to a Challey shot and 2 bailed to Swingfire ATGMs. And then I failed two 2+ remount rolls and the platoon fled the board. Displeased.

What followed was a game in which our respective light troops jockeyed for position, my LAVs removed Pel's Rapiers so my aircraft could attack unmolested, and he made save after save for his remaining Challeys against all my TOW2s and Harrier attacks.  Chieftain Marksmen made a huge mess of my LAVs in the end too. The ridiculous blowout of our respective heavies in the first couple of turns made for a really interesting game which ended with two Marksmen destroying the two LAV-Ms that were contesting the objective to win and I wish I'd taken more photos so I could more coherently report the game.

The M1s were a pleasure to paint and they've come up really well. The flat panels aren't as bad as the ones on the AAPV7s of the Sergeant Yorks so they were definitely easier to do than those.

Well enough that I have acquired some more Bradleys and will be mucking around with an Armoured Cavalry formation with M1s and M2 and M3 Bradleys and actually having another game of TY just reminds me that while it has it's faults as a game, I still really like playing it. 

Iconoclastic Progress

In between hammering through those M1s with my hobby time last week, I made some forward progress on the Iconoclast as well. 

On top of working through the bottom of the titan, I've built all the weapons, magnetised the shoulder guns, made some decisions about the decorative carapace weapons and basically just have to finish up working out how I want to pose it so I can get the rest of it built.

Then comes the hard part - working out how to paint it.

Next Time

More Iconoclast I think although being back to work after the holidays suggests a likely drop in productivity and no mistake!

Pooch's goals for 2022

2021 was a frankly insane year on the work front and having small, achievable goals helped me to keep up with my hobby time- a thing that does help keep me sane(ish) when things like work are going insane. With 2022 looking to be much the same, it's time to share my plans, schemes and goals for 2022....

1. Paint a platoon of DAK each month

I have a whole lot of DAK to paint- panzer IIIs, panzer IVs, artillery, reconnaisance and anti-tank guns which all need to get painted. The plan is to take them to Panzershrek this year, so I'd best get painting, and I figure working through a platoon each month will help it not get on top of me, while still keeping up making good progress into getting them painted.

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

I always have things that I want to add to armies that I have already got- an extra Titan here, another unit of Sisters there. Maybe another unit of Droids? 

So, I've resolved to get something in this category painted each month, to keep making progress on different pieces that I already own, and maybe give me an excuse to paint a few new things.

3. Finish up a table of terrain

Last year saw me complete a Frostgrave table, and the year before was a FOW/TY desert table and a Wild West table. And given I've still got at least two tables of terrain downstairs that I have yet to build, I really need to keep this goal so I get onto them!

4. Play a game a month, that was different to the last month

This goal was one of my favourites from last year, so it had to come back again. I have however made it a wee bit more difficult, with the goal to help me play and enjoy more of the different games that I have armies for- especially those which I have put a whole lot of recent work into. 

5. Paint a new historical army

I've got two armies planned for this one- a 6mm ACW Union force, and a 15mm ADLG Renaissance army. 

And that's it, five goals, 12 months to achieve them. Wish me luck!

5 new goals.... get cracking!

Pooch

Pooch's December update

So with that, December is done now too, and with it goes 2021. Will I miss it? No. Did I get a whole lot of painting done? Yes!

Keeping the blog running monthly has worked well, and helped me to focus in on actually getting things completed- a known issue with me that I am trying to correct! 

1. Finish a table of terrain

I managed to finish the last few pieces that I needed to complete to make my Frostgrave table fully done- namely a couple more buildings, and some trees!

Table layout expertly provided by my son

The statue is one piece I am particularly happy with

2. Play a game a month

I did quite well on this one in December, with three Flames of War games played with my DAK Panzers at Remember December, which the Panzers came up trumps in!

Panzer III's, looking cool. These three would soon die to 2pdr portees...

The mighty Panzer II and III assault force!

And not only that, but I also managed to get in a Frostgrave game! 

3. Finish a 1,500 point 40k army

Well, I didn't get all of the Sisters I wanted to get done, done. But I did still complete more than 1,500 points worth of Sisters- 1,640 of just Sisters, then there is the Inquisition models on top of that! 

New this month is a Dominion squad, equipped with 4 Artificer Stormbolters. Because... Dakka.

Dakka.

Converted model with a storm bolter

Sister superior from the Combat Patrol box, converted to have new weapons

And the army as a whole? Looking sweet!

So... apparently I managed to finish a few Sisters this year then?

4. Finish an army that I have part started

Back to the DAK for this one, this time with 3 Panzer IV F1s completed. I went a bit heavier on the weathering for these three- unintentionally, it was just how the chipping medium worked out on the day I did them. I don't hate the effect, and I don't hate the idea of having a real mix across my DAK army either!

Three grimey Panzer IVs

Another view of the platoon commander

DAK force so far- note the difference in colours!

In game terms, the Panzer IV F1 are mostly completely awful, but I love em.

5. Buy, build and play a new game

For my Star Wars Legion, I finished up a Super Tactical Droid.

I went with the smuggest possible pose for it too!

But more substantially, I managed to finish up the full Celt army for Art de la Guerre! 

All told, it amounts to.... 154 infantry and 16 cavalry. So... just a few painted...

An aerial shot of the whole army. There is maaaaany.

One of twenty(!) bases of medium infantry

A base of light horse

The camp for the army- an offering of enemy heads!

5 goals, 5 complete. On to next year!

Pooch

Welcome to our third attempt at March 2020

As we once again wade into another year of this whole global pandemic thing, it's a good thing there's still gaming nerdery to get on with, figures to paint and things to ponder. 

Over this last week, much like the other lads converting armies for ADLG I've managed to finish basing my Byzantines:

I'm really pleased with how it came out. The Gamers Grass flowers have added some much needed colour and texture to the bases that I didn't have in the IMPETVS version of this army and it looked pretty blah across the board. 

There's still a couple of light horse bases to finish that I'm *still* working on because they're super frustrating and I'll freely admit I'm struggling to do those. I should book in a game and that'll get them done. 

I had a game of Frostgrave with Blogger Scotty before the New Year which was an absolute hoot and I didn't take any pictures at all. Suffice to say that, for me, it involved a lot of running around casting Steal Health frequently for no benefit as casting successfully was too hard. I also painted this dude, finally to go in the crew as a Construct: 

 It's a great model and I really enjoyed getting it on the park. I remain disappointed that GW dropped this range. It was always one I enjoyed and I wish I'd had the sense to buy it when it was still in production...

Otherwise, it's been WIPs across the board:

 This is the Leman Russ I've been working on as a bit of a rescue project. As a result it's made up of a motley collection of parts from two different iterations of Leman Russ kits and I'm having to scratch build parts of the sponsons that have been causing me more grief than cutting bits of plastic should. It's weirdly made me wish for a pair of digital calipers so I could more easily measure existing Russes to get the sizes accurate and make scoring the plasticard easy.

 First steps in the platoon of the month is this full size Grenadier platoon. I'm doing full 8 stand platoons for some possible MW value (and we'll just pretend there aren't any Panzerfausts) as well as a pair of extra stands to bulk up the platoon I've already got and the CO base. There's also an AT rifle and light mortar just sitting there, which will probably be a final thing to do all the various add ons I might want for the MW value.

Finally, I might have bought another titan for Adeptus Titanicus (a Warmaster Iconoclast) and it's silly and I love it. It's been a really interesting assembly trip so far as it's a lot of work and it seems SO much bigger than a Warlord. This is the first Titan I'm going to magnetise weapons on because while there are no additional arm weapons, all the shoulder weapons (except the missile launchers, because VULPA!) could be useful and the kit's perfectly designed for them to be magnetised.

Next Time

It's club day so whatever I wind up playing! I'll also be doing more work on the platoon of the month and the titan and Russ assembly. And maybe, just maybe, I'll wind up finishing my Byzantine light horse...