Gettysburg Day 2

So I wans't feeling the best and so missed the cricket in the heat and headed down to Peters for the 2nd round of Gettysburg.

This time it was focused on day 2 with a massive game rather than 3 linked scenrio's.

Its what war-gaming is all about - hundreds even thousands of figures - and lots of good company and good humor (well for the most part but ill get to that!).

Gettysburg Part 1

Today was Gettysburg day part 1.

Fantastic fun- the scenario was to play 3 scenario's that then fed into pickets charge.  East Cavalry Field- Culps Hill and the round top. Rules used where Black Powder the perfect rules for multi-player games.

8 Players - lots of red wine and an awful lot of fun.  The Union blue bellies won the day with pickets charge being over in 30 minutes as overwhelming union forces destroyed the advancing brigades.

There are plans to re-run the game next Saturday focusing just on day 2 as a massive single game.

Space Wolves Heresy Era Rhino's

In amongst all the historical stuff i have been working on i am slowly picking away at my space wolf heresy army -  Im just waiting now for the Prospero book to be released (believe it will be late next year) and then i can dive into all the awesome wolfy stuff forgeworld will release.

In the meantime i did complete some Rhino's and here are two of them with weathering and pack markings.

Im really happy with how they came out and have two more to complete as well as a Spartan Assault tank and a Typhon heavy siege tank.

Im delaying working on the infantry till I have some solid information on park and pauldron marking from FW.  But all 4 veteran squads are built and have the same pale grey as the tanks.

The army has really now entered in the holding pattern. 

Vikings Part 6

Bit of a short collection update here -  added some skirmishers and I do have another 12 on the painting table to complete as well.

The English Civil Wars - Part 1 - A Very Uncivil War.

The English Civil Wars 1640- 1660

When I decided that I wanted to build a collection of toy soldiers for this period,  initially I was put off. This was back in 2007 and as usual when I begin to build up a knowledge base about a period im interested in I bought a bunch of books about the war.

And as is the case I got some heavy text to get into the social and political environment.

Starting with "Civil War" the Wars of the three Kingdoms: 1638 -1660" by Trvor Royale, I then read "The Great Civil War" by Alfred H. Burne and Peter Young and quickly added to the list "Old Ironsides: The military Biography of Oliver Cromwell" by Franl Kitson.

So Far I had waded through the politics of the period,  got an insight into how the long drawn out and destructive wars in Europe (Thirty Years Wars) had up to that point not impacted on the three kingdoms and reaslised that the Cromwell did not look as good as Richard Harris and that Charles was not the spitting image of Alec Guinness and that as usual Hollywood made some dramatic changes - well in fact aside from the names of the characters it was pretty much off on allot of things.

Wargaming the English Civil War and a new Direction

Well another long pause in between posts and here I am back again with some new work and a new project.

The Dark Ages armies have been moving along nicely and I should have some updates for the Vikings and even the beginning of the Saxon project soon.

But something new is afoot as the title of this post should suggest.

The English Civil War. 

Picture from : http://iron-mitten.blogspot.com.au/2012_01_01_archive.html

Recently I have started to plan a career change, with a view to return to university and rather than the last time round and spit out with a business degree, (which has done allot for me admittedly) this time im going to follow my passion.  So I've take two steps so far:  Step one is to enroll in a course on the English Civil War that is offered by Oxford university via distance education, and  I have applied to enrol in  the graduate diploma of Military History at the University of NSW - and then all things going well - complete a Masters and then PhD in the field.

Viking King! Vikings Part 5

A weekends worth of work and I have a Viking King to lead my growing hoard.

Vikings Part 4

So its been a while in the updates and I say that allot ! but there it is-  I usually go into a bit of focus and work at getting units painted and i stop posting.

Vikings Part 3

Shield-frame will be smashed,

the maid’s eyes flash across this district at the thanes’ maimer, sword-lord. 
There’ll be for all soldiers,

for each man here many a spear, before the great storm

of steel appears.

  

"The Saga of

Half & his Heroes" 

Reaver Titan - Fourth Post

Tremble foes of man for the wrath of the Omnissiah is upon you.

Say what you will about GW but for everything they aren't Forgeworld is! Having just received my certificate from them this morning for my Reaver Titan express post, Gratis mind you! I am again reminded how they will go out of their way to help the hobbyist!

In other news the Titan build plods along, with whole sections ready for assembly it now falls to me to design and build a terrain for it to stride upon, once I have the ground work down I will have the legs built forthwith and in my next post I will cover this in full, until then Viva Le Forgeworld, Viva Le MCCXXVII.


In so much space

Reaver Titan - Third Post

So work continues on with the Reaver, while mostly in the planning phase there has been a little action.For the most part I spent the week planning on how to make a screw action for the waist joint, while at the same time removing unwanted flash and repairing miscasting (of which there was a bit on some parts but none really major)

So having planned it it was time I did it! The original idea comes from the guys over at Blue Table painting, I merely put my own spin on it. spin... screw... oh I crack myself up.

Reaver Titan - Second Post

Day 3, Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody. no wait, isn't that what we are aiming for?

So after not doing much for a day, contemplating the enormity of the task ahead of me I relented and gave the beast the bubble bath I promised, Read below for soapy pics of the reaver in the nude!

Reaver Titan - First post

Very recently I was fortunate enough to come across a sale for a second hand Reaver Titan, intact, unbuilt and in very good condition. Needless to say from this post I bought that sucker and have now fulfilled part one of my ultimate hobby dream, that is owning a Reaver Titan!

This however is going to be more than just a simple glue and paint job, it will be time, work and above all else,  bloody fun! *


So over the coming weeks I hope to be able to take you into the madness that will be several kilos of resin and countless hours of cursing, swearing and above all else... fun? *

Now its time to give this bad boy a bubble bath!

Von Drakin


* fun not guaranteed 

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind

Photo's Photo's and more photo's

 Today is just a massive host of photo's - all of it is previous work but this time my brother in law Micheal a budding photographer brought his heavy duty camera equipment over and took what I can honestly say is some awesome shots of some of my favorite models.

Ergonomically Terrific!

Hey gang! Just a quick post to throw out my thoughts on one of the new Eldar kits out there that has me very excited!

The Wraithfighter/Hemlock kit!

As an avid enthusiast of aircraft as well as an Aerospace Engineering student this kit really does tick a lot of the boxes for me!

Seen below in classical 3-view configuration it can be seen very easily that this aircraft for once displays signs of aerodynamic balancing as a sub sonic interceptor. I say subsonic for a few key reasons of which I will talk about after the pictures!

So I've been a busy boy

It's been a little while since last time I posted anything for the general public and suffice it to say I have indeed been a pottering in my 'workshop' also known as 'The study' or 'What the fuck happened, oh my god how did it get on the CEILING!'

Over the next few weeks I will endeavour to bring up the sum total of work on the blog, however due to the fact that I still study (apparently anyway) this may be a slow process.

So the Ultramarines do indeed come along, with only a few mishaps so far but a bevy of new hobby challenges, including new sculpting techniques, NMM, wet blending and some tricky airbrush work... oh and water effects.

The Contemptor Dreadnought has to be one of the sexiest models ever!

 Read on full a gallery of finely painted miniatures!

Secret Weapon Kickstarter

Ive decided to back this Kickstarter -  its a good concept from a good company and I think is going to add value to the community.

tablescapes by secret weapon miniatures
Get on and back em!

Ive gone for the $190 option as that gets me a table of terrain-  Hopefully Ill get the rolling fields for my dark ages project.  Delivery is marked for October this year plenty of time to get all my Vikings and Saxons Painted !

Then there where 2 units ! Vikings I mean

So not resting Ive kicked into getting a 2nd units done and as I took photo's of this formation I begun cleaning up a 3rd unit.  I figure while motivation is high keep on rolling :)

1st Lot of Viking raiders

So my bases arrived and very excited I must say- warbases have done a great job and I have got to work getting models based and pushing on with some Hirdmen.

Birthday Gifts and Delays!

Well I turned 33 yesterday,  3rd of the way there a witty individual said and I asked to where?  Anyway it was great to have the family all together eating laughing and just a general good time and to top it off I got some awesome gifts as well.

Painting Blood effects with Tamiya Clear Red

I have had allot of questions about how I paint blood on my models-  I decided to post up the tutorial I found recently that describes the technique. 

Hope this helps out a few people

Cheers

JP

Vikings and Saxons Project Episode 2

 Hey guys 1st command base pretty much completed -  Happy with the outcome and looking forward to getting into the units -  waiting on the order from Warbases who by the way have been awesome with helping me organize the bases I want, the order is in and i'm patiently for the postman to deliver all the bases.

Anyway hope you like the below.

Vikings and Saxons Project Episode 1

So we begin, while I have been working and have painted nearly 48 viking models already, one thing that makes this part of my Dark Ages project different is firstly im allot happier with the models and whats more I have spent some time on the planning and thinking about this project.

I have had an image in my minds eye now for nearly 3 months thinking about how the armies should look, how they are based and more certain solutions to issues I have identified.

Project Plans for the rest of 2013

Ive hit a bit of a dull patch with my painting-  waiting on orders to come in see's me looking at what I want to achieve this year.

Ive broken it down to 3 key objectives before November this year.

1 :  Space Wolf 13th company -  Upgrade and detail completion
2 :  Dark Age Project  Vikings and Saxons
3 :  Fantasy High Elves 


I know that this year I have mentioned I want to get back into historical gaming, but after some recent games of 40k I realized that I will need to upgrade and add some units to the space wolves to see them continue to be competitive in the current meta.  So in the interest of committing to a plan and then to make it work I'm sharing what I plan to work on and blog over the coming year.

On making thematic bases

So a short while ago I crafted a custom flyer base for my first Storm Talon, It has taken me until now however to actually do something with it and while it is still wip I feel it has come far enough to warrant a little post about it!

Gah, its another post!

LOL look at me, I'm a regular web posting guy or something whatevs.

So with my energy reinvigorated by my recent dalliance into the dark angels, I decided its high time that the completely assembled Ultramarines army got another look in, So with that I started at the only logical place, one of the Storm Talons!

Hobby Zone Painting Station

Today the Postman delivered a flat pack from Poland allot quicker than i expected as well!

Recently in an attempt to reorganize the house and provide my wife with a proper space in which to complete her university study I gave up my semi man cave to facilitate this.  Truth be told i spent most of my painting time anyway with most of my stuff spawrled out on the dining table painting and talking with my wife in the evenings.   So in the end the desks and what not didnt get used allot anyway.

Saga - Review

This weekend I got my 1st two games of Saga and as I expected I'm hooked!

Now im not big on reviews but I have to say this game is engaging fun and while the combat system is simple the complexity is the battle boards.

The game is pretty straight forward - roll your saga dice - allocated dice to the board to complete actions - these can range from simple actions such as being able to activate different types of units to completing complex attacks or forcing your opponent into making challenging tactical choices.

Much ado about nothing

So lately I have done very little hobby, that is too say done nothing at all.

I didn't get the lighting right for this shot so the green doesn't have the right lustre

That is until recently, when I saw a picture on the white dwarf daily feed (yes I read it from time to time) of a wonderful Disciples of Caliban paint scheme (original post here) on some Dark Vengeance terminators which gripped me, Needless to say that I have started to replicate the work and now have my own Terminators to a table top equivalent, The plan is of course to bring them up to the same level of detail as the ones featured in the original picture but for now just putting paint to figure is enough.

Original artwork by Štěpán Smejkal

Thats all for now, I shall endeavour to update as more work goes on, but for me I'm glad to be back into the hobby!

Dark Ages WIP: 4ground Building

Recently I bought a laser cut model kit by the company 4Ground -  I have to get some buildings Tree's and what not eventually and Ive seen these models kicking around and figured Id give them a try.

War of the Roses

So in my ever deepening obsession with the medieval period- even so far as to consider selling my grey knights army to fund some future projects- I stumbled across this fantastic battle report.  The forum is called lead adventure.

I leave the link here and few shots as well : Medieval Battle Royale III

Viking update - FLAGS!

So this weekend the wife got me out to furniture stores as we worked on updateing the lounge and dinning chairs- exhausting work but worthwhile and I'm looking forward a refresh after looking at the same stuff for the past decade.

Why Historical Wargaming,

As you would have noticed recently I’ve begun a journey and project centered around the dark ages – my main focus being to research and build a Viking Army and a Saxon army to both use in SAGA- the skirmish game as well as for War and Conquest – (WAB Successor).

It’s been a long time between drinks as far as painting historical go -  for nearly 4 years now ive put allot of effort into 40k and a bit of a dabble into Warhammer fantasy.  This was on the back of nearly 6 years of painting Napoleonic Austrians and French in 15mm. 

Work in Progress Viking Update

The Last two weeks Ive been on a long overdue Holiday - and I spent some time with my amazing wife on the fantastic Island of Hawaii-  it was two weeks of surf sand and sun and the above shot was the sunset we watched on our last night. 

Vikings!

 So I hinted in my last post that I was going to push back into historical gaming, and I have been wanting to get back into historical gaming for a very long time.  The main block to this is the start up and the numbers of models you need to play large battle games. 

Your usually looking at a few hundred models and collections sitting on a shelf for months as you build up the assets to get things going- add to that the guys at Hampton dont mess around with this.... yet.  So Saga is a logical choice as a starting point. You need only a few models -25-50 for a involving skirmish game- that will see models being used pretty much as soon as ive got my 1st warband together and then I can slowly build the rest of the collection.

Cancon Wrap up

So the 1st trip to Cancon is over and Im working through the recovery and still working on making out what happened over the weekend!

Suffice to say 1st off Cancon as an event was awesome, so many traders, display games and just general wargaming goodness.  I missed allot being locked into 3 days of gaming and feel there was more to be had from the event than just the competition.

As far as the tournament went - according to rankings HQ I finished equal 16th - so i feel not a bad outcome. The event itself? well that Im not so sure about.

2013- Cancon and the Year ahead!

Well its the 23rd of January and the Australia day Holiday is coming up.  The last 2 years Ive been the Melbourne event Arcannacon. This year I decided I wanted something different, this year I wanted to play with more toys and also mess around with forge-world.  So this Year im off to Cancon- and I have to say I'm really really excited.

The last 5 months with the most activity happening in the last 2 months Ive been busy convinving the wife to let me buy forgeworld models and then painting them.

I want to do the 13th company during the heresy and you have seen some of the effort here in past posts.