Pooch's September update

Well.... September disappeared... and so did three weeks of October..... oops!

But at least I did manage to get some painting in!

1. Paint a platoon for Flames of War

The painting progress continues for my Late War US army, this time finishing up...

A Stuart Cavalry Patrol

And.....

LVT-4s to transport some Infantry!

Next up? I probably should finish up the infantry platoon that goes into those LVTs, but I think it'll be back to the desert, as I add some more things to my Early/Mid DAK army.

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

Not one but two big stompy robots in this category today!

Stompy Robot 1 is a Hulkbuster Robot for the Marvel Crisis Protocol game

Metallic Red is a bad colour to photograph....

Still a bad colour, even from the back!

And second is a Dire Wolf Scout titan for Adeptus Titanicus- affectionately known as a "derp chicken"!

So derpy. So cool..

3. Finish up a piece of terrain

The pieces of terrain for this month are to help me get back onto the Wild West bandwagon. The cattle were from 3d Breed, and were printed by the awesome Potbelly miniatures. 

Moo.

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

The reason I painted up those specific Flames of War models was to play a game of Late War Flames of War! I used my wintery US tanks in a couple of really enjoyable games- too enjoyable to remember to take many photos!

So many Sherman hulls!

Not sure what October's game will be!

5. Paint a Hundred Years War French Army for ADLG

Paint one base for ADLG

This month's base is a little bit of a cop out- I'd actually gotten to the last week of September feeling very smug that I had painted everything I needed for September.

Turns out I hadn't, so I quickly worked up this base of Handgunners, who will be used as Elite Crossbow in my Hundred Years War army.

Not much more to say other than that they are done!

Paint one Knight for ADLG

This month's knight is my second General:

And I have so many more knights to go, it's going to be a very cavalry filled finish to the year I think!

Paint up an army of 15mm Celts

A small month this month for the Celts, with three medium sword bases done.

This is the 7th, 8th and 9th Medium Sword base....

Aiming to finish the Celt army off in October!

Pooch

Pooch's July update

Well, that's July done, and a timely update to boot. So, I’ve got 5 months to go, but how did my progress go compared to the painting goals?

1. Paint a platoon of DAK each month

My last unit for the 140 point Mid War doubles competition is now completed, and it's a platoon of sneaky sneaky 221 and 222 armoured cars. They were finished in my usual style using the airbrush, chipping medium and oil wash.

I painted up both the MG and the 2.8cm ATR turret, just in case I wanted to swap them out.

The whole platoon of four armoured cars

The 2cm turret vs the 2.8cm ATR turret

Overall, I'm really happy with them, and the force is coming together really nicely. I still have a bunch to paint to round out the year- more than a platoon a month worth to be sure!

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

First up this month, is something for my sub-goal of painting Adeptus Sororitas, a unit of Celestian Sacresancts. I painted them disassembled, so they really only came together as finished on the last day of the month, despite me painting their heads on the first day of the month! 

5 Sacresancts with Halberds. Because Halberd.

I do so love my worn gold recipie

But also this month I managed to finish up something that has been slowly coming together for the past three months- a second Warlord Titan for the Legio Asotrum!

Looking menacing as heck in blue and yellow....

And did I mention the weapons are magnetised?

I still have one more titan to paint- not sure if that will be a next month job however!

3. Finish up a table of terrain

So. Corvus Games do amazing buildings right? So when I spotted that they had a three story theatre, I couldn't help myself and bought it. It was a mammoth paint over the last couple of months, using a combination of airbrush and brush. It's been staring at me, mocking me for failing to finish it for that whole time, and I made sure to knock the b*stard off this month!

And it is oh so big (that's what she said)

Posters were found on the internet, printed and stuck on. Just adds to the feel!

Far less glamourously, I finished up a small altar for my Silver Bayonet table too. Which took me... 15 minutes to paint? Compared to 2 and a half months for the theatre. Time is stupid.

Creepy tree now has a creepy altar. It's only right.

Next up... well I do have another Corvus building sitting downstairs ready to paint, so maybe that?

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

As you will have read in McZ's recap, this month had the Panzershrek competition held up in Palmerston North. Scotty and I headed north, bringing with us a (questionably) mighty force of Panzer IIIs and IVs.

It looked good at least!

The games were really interesting- the Panzer III was better than I think we both expected, but was frequently outmatched by what we faced (I'm looking at you M3 Lee with a long 75mm!). We ended the tournament with 2 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws, and overall enjoyed the games because let's be honest, doubles is a great experience when you are co-generalling with a great person!

Crusaders vs 221/222 armoured cars. Amazingly, the Armoured Cars actually killed one (before they were slaughtered)

Don't let the infantry fool you- this was done by an ambush by Marders!

Formidable defensive position on one side of the table....

And this was the equally formidable defensive position on the other side of the table!

A mad dash of Panzer IIIs to run over some Finns- those three tanks were knocked out by direct fire from 105mm artillery. And were all my CO at the time. I was beginning to get the sense it was personal...

Finnish ski troops in the desert. Because that's how gaming goes sometimes.

Did we enjoy the tournament? Absolutely. Will we be back next year? Absolutely.

Do I know what I will play next month? Absolutely not!

5. Paint a new historical army

I managed to force myself into knocking off the first component of my ADLG-R Thirty Years War later German Catholic army. I decided to buy the army from Khurasan in a few groups, mainly so that I didn't overwhelm myself into unmotivation by having yet more unpainted figures sitting next to me!

The first group is made up of 4 bases of Cuirassiers, 3 bases of Dragoons, 1 base of Schutzen, a medium cannon and my army camp. The camp was made from a couple of spare dragoons, and a reliquary from my bits box.

Here it is, in all 81 points of it's glory!

4 bases of Cuirassiers. Blackened armour doesn't like photos

Three bases of dragoons

A medium cannon, and a base of Schutzen

A reliquary being guarded by some Dragoons

So that is all of the Renaissance I own now painted, suppose I had better prep the next order, right?

FLAMES OF WAR FOLLOWED BY FLAMES OF WAR IS STRETCHING THE RULES...

Pooch

Pile. Games. Stuff.

More off the pile

I've cleared a couple more outstanding tasks in a week where I didn't really feel like painting a lot. I started finishing up some tiny Knight Moiraxes for Adeptus Titanicus. I bought these for a lol and they're so cute. They'll go super well with my other House Hyboras knights. 

Teeny Moiraxes!

I also carried on with the grind of painting my ADLG-R Spanish with the third General base.

General Numero Tres

 I've also started on the Pistoliers (having painted all their horses) and have AMAZINGLY started on the first Tercio. They're gonna take me ages since keeping them classy but un-uniform is very hard.

I'm also thinking I should photograph the entire pile at some stage. This desk needs to be heaps cleaner than it is!

Club Day

Flames of War

I had a couple of great games at the club yesterday. First, a game of Late War Flames with Blogger Scotty trying out a new Hungarian list and we tried out the new Valley of Death mission from the new Flames Mission Pack (quick aside, it's a vast improvement on it's predecessor and much more playable for the defender.)

Admire Scotty's lovely Tigers

 This is about turn five where I still had no reserves and had one hilarious turn bailing out Tigers frontally with StuGs but missing the all important kills. I had a couple of very poor rounds of MG shooting at all that infantry too and they eventually shoved my infantry and all my StuGs off both objectives. It's a good list and while I keep trying with StuGs, I just can't make a list I don't hate.

Silver Bayonet

We settled down after lunch to a four player game of Silver Bayonet as Scotty, Tank and I introduced a new player to the stupidity that is this game. 

We played Loup-Garou Surprise which worked out really well for four players with really only adding another Werewolf to really get the scenario to sing. 

It was a pretty cagey start by all four of us:

That's turn 2 when we were taking long range pot-shots across the centre with a few firing sideways at our respective neighbours. It's also about when my opponents worked out that my historical ploy of trying to pick them off one at a time (it was very French of me) and my old standby of "fight me you coward" didn't work as well as I had previously found!

By turn 3, I had taken out the neighbouring British Highlander, again, after he had a nasty run in with my Heavy Cavalryman before a Vivandiere snuck up behind him and absolutely middled him in the back of the head. She was rudely gunned down by a British doctor (I know medicine in the 19th century was ropey but WtF?!) and didn't survive the battle.

This last pic is where the game ended up:

You can see all the death, especially the remnant on the melee in the centre that is in the previous photo. Two of us limped off with half our warbands intact, the other two not so much as their last two models got into a firefight and it was a question of who hit first! (Spoiler - the Spanish Irregular hiding in a forest had the upper hand.)

I'm mostly just stoked that Georg Bitterlich, Wurtemburger and now Highlander AND Doctor Slayer (after he ran down Tank's Doctor Theopolous) is still going. Scotty and Tank have both put a target on his back now, just to upset me. 

Next Time

I'm playing in a mid-war doubles event next weekend so my post will be a day late but should be a run down on how Tank and I get on plus whatever exciting I get done this week. 

Pooch's March update

Wait, March is done too? This is getting ridiculous. I don't have a good reason for why it's taken me two weeks to get this post written. Life I guess? Shrug.

Luckily, painting has still managed to carry on!

1. Paint a platoon of DAK each month

This month is one of my favourite vehicles for the Afrika Corps- the Diana!

Marrying up a captured Russian anti-tank gun, with some slabs of armour plate on top of a half tracked prime mover- such fun! In game terms they are fine- they get overshadowed by the Marder, which does the same job better, for a point or so more. Regardless, rule of cool means I bought Diana, not Marders!

Oh so cool!

With crew, and ranging rulers

2. Add something to armies I have already painted

This month it's Adeptus Titanicus, where I have finished the biggest, and smallest models for the game!

First up is the Warbringer, equipped with two massive Plasma Destructors, with magnetised small weapons on it's shoulders. It's the shooty version of the one that McZ finished up a month or so ago!

And along with the Warbringer, I also finished some of the lovely Armigers from Forgeworld. These little cuties are potentially useful in game, especially when I added the two 3d printed ones I finished up at some stage last year.

Such a big stomy titan!

And not so big and stompy!

Next month... not sure!

3. Finish up a table of terrain

More progress on my 28mm Moderns table, this time with buildings from the amazing Corvus Games! We have a local club member who has started into the 3d printing game, who is doing exceptionally good work at it. Combine that with some really high quality designs from Corvus, and you have a recipie for some really really cool terrain for my table.

The two new buildings, plus some locals

A close up of the back of the Corvus Games building

And the oh so cool donut shop!

I also managed to find a mould I had lying around for some Jersey Barriers, so I cast up a set from DAS Clay to add to the table too.

Next up? More from Corvus Games!

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

This month it was a brand new game for me, Altar of Freedom! McB and I got out our shiny new 6mm ACW and refought the second battle of Kernstown.

As a ruleset we both really liked how the game played- there was a lot in it both strategically and tactically, and while units were outright destroyed only rarely, there was a lot of push backs and exploitation moves. 

Union Dismounted Cavalry hold the hill, with infantry in reserve

The Union defensive line on the hill, with the Confederates advancing

The fight on the Union left flank

Definitly a game that we will be playing more of this year. The other important conclusion that we came to was that we would need more 6mm ACW (oh no....)

5. Paint a new historical army

With my 6mm ACW completed (for now), I have moved on to the next new historical army for the year, a 15mm Thirty Years War Catholic army for ADLG-R. I have gone with the lovely Khurasan miniatures, and have set about buying them in small(ish) batches, so that I don't become overfaced and demotivated- learning some lessons from finishing up other Ancient armies! 

Nothing is yet finished, so here is a taster for how we are going- some Dragoons!

Some cuirassiers are up next, and maybe some basing?

Progress is..... acceptable....

Pooch