Off on Holiday!

 Gosh! It's the longest day of the year and we're off on our holidays for a week!

Alas I've not had much chance to do anything hobby related in what feels like ages so this will be a nice opportunity to relax, refresh and hopefully refocus as I'm really keen to kickstart some much needed wargaming shenanigans.

In the meantime I'm packing some reading and drawing materials and hope to enjoy a sunny week in Shropshire.

I'm hoping to be able to get some firm ideas for my Longmyre setting so fingers crossed, I'll have some updates upon our return but in the meantime, All the best!

Tiny Dark Ages Project Part 1: A Man With a Plan

 Hi!

Well somewhat surprisingly I've found myself with a bit of spare time to post a quick blog ramble! 

Our car passed its MOT with no faults which came as a bit of a surprise so I found myself with an actual hobby budget for once and decided to pick up some Lancashire Games Little Wars figures for my 10mm Lion Rampant army.

Having shopped around a bit, I settled on these little guys because they seemed to be just about the best value for money I could find and I liked how characterful the tiny guys looked!

Here's some pics of their painted Vikings from their website as an example:

I love how dynamic the figures appear and the mixture of weapons and gear which suits a bunch of pillaging Vikings!

The tiny figures literally ooze character and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Saxons in the coming week or two!

I ended up placing an order for one of each of the following packs which should give me enough to put together a nice size warband for Lion Rampant.

Saxon Command

Thanes with Axes

Thanes with Swords

Greater Fyrd 

Lesser Fyrd

Now while I'm waiting for the figures to turn up, I've been reading my way through some inspiration to get myself into a Dark Age mindset!

First and foremost, I've been listening the Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy and absolutely loving listening to the quest of Dunston, a grizzled and aging loner who becomes embroiled in a quest for vengeance in 838AD. Matthew does a brilliant job of bringing the period to life and creating a gripping story as well as a cast of characters that are really enjoyable to read, especially Dunston himself.

Secondly, I'm reading my way through Bloodfeud by Richard Fletcher, an eminently readable history of a family feud that lasted three generations and saw a ridiculous amount of bloodletting and also brings the period vividly to life.

I've got a load of other bits and bobs to read and have ordered a couple of Osprey books to help with reference and they're always a great way to get to grips with a subject.

I've still not settled quite on what basing I'm going to go for but once I have the figures in hand, I'll have a better idea of what I'm working with and what will work best.

Once the figures arrive I'll post a mini review and then see if I can paint up some test pieces to see how I get on with things but until then, All the best!

Beadbots

 Hi!

Just a quick update this morning before we head out for the day!

I've had these guys built for a while and finally got chance to paint them recently (annoyingly there's actually three of them but the cat has knocked one down the back of my painting stand and I can't seem to find it!).

Made from wooden beads, cocktail sticks and EVA foam, they've actually turned out quite nicely and would do for everything from mecha in 6/10mm to heavy power armour and dreadnoughts in 15mm or even normal warbots in 28mm.

I'm not too pleased with the bases if I'm honest and may yet rebase them with something a bit more substantial but they were the only ones I had to hand!

I've got a fourth, larger mech finished and just needing basing as well as a couple of rivals for these guys made from different shaped beads and plan on introducing them into my AK47 Republic sci-fi shenanigans at some point.

I rather enjoyed making them, apart from the fact that I had to use copious amounts of superglue to keep them together as the wooden beads seem to soak it up like nobody's business! 

All the best!

And Now for Something Completely Different

 Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last month but work has been pretty full on and days off spent trying to get Casa de Smith in order for my father in law's impending visit combined with trying to finish a commission has resulted in hobby time being pretty much zero.

I have got a couple of bits and bobs that I've built and painted but not had chance to take pictures of yet but that's a post for another day!

Today's post is about my humming and hahing about dipping my toe into historical gaming. I've got mixed feelings about the subject as on the one hand, literally millions of people have died in war over the centuries so its quite a weighty topic but on the other hand, I do believe its vital to explore our history and not shy away from it and historical gaming combines several of my interests quite nicely.

Over the years I've collected a lot of rulebooks and feel its high time I actually did something with some of them and while the likes of Lion Rampant may be a bit on the lighter end of the scale, it should allow me to collect some small warbands and play games relatively quickly.

I've got a genuine fascination with the Dark Ages too so it seems like a good idea to start here with some Anglo Saxon vs Viking raider shenanigans and possibly take a peek at some Romano British from a slightly earlier period and there's some really nice ranges available too.

On the one hand, I could easily use Brutal Quest to play out small skirmishes featuring small bands of characters and then scale things up into larger warbands and retinues using Lion Rampant and 10 or 15mm scale figures to represent them on a relatively modest budget.

Alas while I have lots of ideas and vague plans at the moment, the time to put any of them into action is sadly lacking but hopefully I'll find a bit of time once I have access to my man cave again and in the meantime, I can put a bit of effort into reading and researching the period as well as picking up a pack or two of figures to see what I can make of them.

I've also been thinking of a Bolt Action WW2 project but we'll see how I get on with this first before I go flailing around with yet another project before I even get started with this one!

I don't think I'm going to be able to post much for the next month or so as our visitor is with us for three weeks and then we're off on holiday down south in June but opon our return, we'll be getting the library/mancave into order and I'll finally have my gaming board up and running again which I've not had for six months now.

In the meantime, All the best!

Colostle Season 3 Planning

 Hi!

With the recent announcement of an updated Colostle book that combines the original core book with the Roomlands expansion, I have been pondering getting myself back into the swing of things and playing out a campaign using the core rulebook and some assorted gubbins that I've collected over time.

I plan on combining them with my scrapbooking RPG that I've previously enjoyed with The Wandering Library project that I did last year to create a visual journal of my adventurers journeys, their discoveries and battles with the mysterious Rooks, bandits and other denizens of the Colostle.

While of possibly limited interest to my blog readers who are more into wargaming, I do love the creativity pottering about with doodles, pens and paper and random adventure that these sort of journalling RPG's have and will hopefully be able to play out a full campaign over the course of the summer.

Sadly my last two campaigns ran out of steam after about 8-10 sessions and being so busy but this time round I hope to have more of a success with a more visual approach with a scrapbook to chronicle my progress and remind me where I'd got to!

We've got family staying from late May into early June so my man cave/library will be pretty much out of use until then so playing any wargames is going to be all but impossible but this mini project only requires a small amount of space and will hopefully get the creative juices flowing as I've already got some ideas of how I want it to go and if it goes well, I hope to bring this visual approach to my other projects such as the investigations of Inquisitor Fisher, Stump, Aeroth and Longmyre to name a few!

We'll see how I get on as I'm currently awaiting some supplies which will let me get started and if all goes well, I may extend it into a fresh campaign to cover the Roomlands and the other Colostle expansions.

In the meantime, All the best!

Gundam Interlude

 Hi!

Just a quick interlude with a random Gundam Kit that I found at a local toy shop for under £12!

Now I hasten to add that I have pretty much no prior knowledge of the anime or all the lore and just thought it looked pretty handy for the basis of a conversion into something for my alternative Imperium setting!

The built Machine

The kit itself was a fascinating process to build and showcases the difference between GW and Japanese kits. Firstly it costs a fraction of the cost of GW plastics and is pretty much fully posable. While the detail is sharp, it doesn't really have all the doodads and whatnots that make GW stuff interesting challenges to paint.

I like the pose-ability of the kit and the fact that the makers include lots of little ball joints int he armour to allow for a full array of mobility and it went together in about two hours.

I'm planning on using it as either a Mechanicus machine or some Lostech and will be basing and gluing it into a set pose and possibly doing some light conversion work to make it look better scaled towards 28mm as it's supposed to be 10mm!

Its been a refreshing change from my usual stuff and stands approximately 130mm tall so is pretty sizeable and will be an interesting side project to get the thing painted up (along with some suitable weathering and battle damage). 

I've been pondering rummaging out my Planet 28 project stuff and getting back to work on and this would make a great centrepiece for my Hathor campaign!

In the meantime, All the best!

Combined Colostle and In the Land of the Sundering Flood, Oh My!

 Hi!

Just a quick update this evening as we've been off at Rannoch for the day for a good long walk in the Black Woods but I got back to two exciting bits of news!

Firstly Nich Angell, the creator of the utterly wonderful solo RPG Colostle has announced there's going to be a new updated core rulebook released in June. Featuring the content from books one and two in one handy volume, its the perfect way to get into the wonderful world of the Roomlands.

While not a 2nd edition of the game, merely the ultimate collected edition that Nich had originally wished to produce, its a lovely new updated cover and I'll be picking it up as soon as I can and delving back into the best and easiest to learn Solo RPG I've thus far tried.

Better yet, he's also mentioned that there are two more books planned for the series and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it as I've had massive amounts of fun with the first two books and still have to try out the next two supplements!

For those not in the know, Colostle is a setting that comes in the form of a gigantic castle with each room being the size of entire countries, its inhabitants face the constant menace of the enigmatic Rooks, gigantic moving towers that also provide the very building blocks of their civilisation!

Thus far I've played several parts of a developing campaign with my robotic gardener and really loved it and look forward to a new season of adventure!

The other exciting news is that another Nic, this time Nic Evans, he of Planet 28 fame's new game In the Land of the Sundering Flood will be shipping around the same time so I'm going to be absolutely spoiled!

I love Nic's games as they're so simple but fun to play and infinitely customisable and eminently playable so look forward to his new offering in the coming months. 

I'm currently working on a Rusty Robot commission so haven't had much in the way of hobby time but hopefully I'll be able to remedy this once the Robot is finished and shipped off.

In the meantime, All the best!

An Update of Sorts!

 Hi!

Today marks the last day of my hols and I'm back at work tomorrow but I do feel that I've had a fairly productive week of, be it hobbywise or just getting out and about to enjoy some fresh air.

Annoyingly I've got a stye in my eye which has made painting miniatures in the latter half of the week almost impossible as I'm constantly wanting to rub at it. Fortunately it seems to be clearing up just in time to get back to work!

Rannoch Moor

We took ourselves off to Rannoch in Highland Pertshire both for a wee drive and a walk around the Black Woods of Rannoch and I must say I find such excursions incredibly inspiring! 

Rannoch is our favourite part of the country and we've been visiting it regularly for the last decade now and there's something truly magical about the place, almost like travelling to a different time with its snow capped peaks, brooding moorland, mysterious pine forests and glittering Lochs.

Coupled with the weather that changes dramatically (we got sleeted on, rained on and then lovely sunshine within half an hour!), its a great place to visit and recharge the creativity and its given me quite a few ideas for my Longmyre and Stump settings, not to mention some assorted art projects I've been thinking about for quite a while now!

Looking North

Hobbywise, I did manage to play a couple of quick games of Song of Blades and Heroes which was fun but the more I play it, the more little niggles emerge, especially the combat which resulted in an awful lot of pushing and shoving rather than the bloody scrum one wants in a skirmish between Orcish marauders and doughty militiamen! I ended up tweaking the rules a bit which resulted in a more satisfactory outcome but I think I do prefer the likes of Brutalquest for small skirmishes.

I've also got some of my old PDF rules printed out with the vague idea of reading and trying out on my next few days off in April but I'm currently without a proper gaming table as our spare room (library come man cave) has still got a bed in it and my table has had to be taken down. Fingers crossed, we'll eventually be able to move somewhere larger and indeed without all the shenanigans of living in a flat but I'll make do until then! 

Stye Eye Smith

In the meantime, All the best!

Longmyre Militia Based

 Hi!

I'd mentioned a while back that I'd ordered some static grass tufts for my Longmyre project and they've arrived so I had a bash at finishing the basing of my Longmyre Militia which I'd painted recently.

Longmyre Militia

After a bit of perusing on the interwebs I found Phoenix Game Studio on Ebay who offered some nice multi length tufts in different colours so I gave them a bash, getting three different colours.

All the Grass Tufts!

I must admit that I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, some of the tufts may be a wee bit on the long side but it does match the wild moorland that Longmyre sits upon and the different colours and lengths of tuft make for an interesting final result that doesn't look too uniform.

Longmyre Militia vs Orcish Raiders

Compared to the patchier and more uniform colour of the Orcish raider bases that I'd done last, I think this looks quite a bit better and I'd recommend Phoenix Game Studio in future.

Here's a quick pic of some of the Roman earthworks at Ardnoch in Perthshire to give an idea of the kind of terrain the Longmyre denizens will be tramping over:

Roman Fort at Ardnoch

Lots of scrubby grass, gorse and pine makes for a far more interesting surface than the perfect green mowed lawn style of classic Warhammer (although I do have a real fondness for such a setup!) 

Longmyre moors

While Longmyre itself is a mixture of moorlands and woods, there are several other locations that I want to develop the scenery for including the Barrens, a rocky wilderness to the south and the Moss, an area of gnarled temperate rainforest that lies to the west of the Longmyre region. Hopefully I'll get more chance to flesh out these areas and keep adding characters to them as well as scenario ideas and whatnot as worldbuilding is rather a lot of fun.

The Barrens

At present, I have a rough map but want to make a proper medieval style one, possibly subdivided into different regions as if drawn by different people or indeed cultures but that is an art project for another day!

The Greenwood

I've been slowly working on a separate blog for Longmyre with the intention of porting over all my bits and bobs for background and a guide which will eventually form the basis of a campaign with various factions, scenarios, settings and whatnot but its a long term sort of thing which is definitely not ready to share yet as its a bit of a mess.

The Moss

Once I've got it ready, I'll post a link up here on the blog and see how I get on but for the meantime, I'm cracking on painting miniatures as its been very satisfying!

All the best!

Judge Patrol

 Hi!

Just a quick update this morning as we're going out for the day to visit Bannockburn and Ardoch Roman fort, two historical sites I'm embarrassed to say we've not visited yet despite having lived back in Scotland for over a decade now!

Judge Patrol

I actually painted these guys late last year for my somewhat stalled AK47 Republic project which will eventually be re-explored at some point, possibly sooner than I'd expected as the Risk project I've been footling about with has made me think that I could actually paint quantities of figures without too much hassle.

Set in the alternative Imperium of my own headcannon, this is an Arbites patrol and will be eventually be reinforced with another four bases of troops and some vehicles to boot!

I'd painted these guys. with speed paints with some highlighting on top and the results are ok, but possibly not as sharp as I'd have liked but they're finished (apart from some basing extras which I really need to get sorted out!) and while I'd originally hummed and hahed about the multi basing, I quite like how they look.

Farpoint Citizen Militia

I've had a lot of folks asking about my 15mm stuff that I used to post almost exclusively which got me to thinking about re-examining some of it with an eye to getting myself moving again with it. 

Syntha Corporate Operatives

I'd kind of burned myself out with 15mm but I've seen some really inspiring projects online which has got me to pondering a return to the scale and picking up some stalled projects. As per usual, the fact that I'm inspired by what I'm doing now is then kicking onto other projects which is both brilliant and at times frustrating as it means that nothing ever gets finished but on the plus side, I do seem to be enjoying myself just picking up something to paint and hopefully I'll end up with a decent selection of stuff which will allow me to get some games in.

Speaking of games, I've hardly played anything yet this year and I'm hoping to remedy this presently as what better opportunity than having a week off work!

Still, I've got to get myself moving now as we're supposed to be leaving in half an hour and I'm still sat in my jammies so until next time, All the best!

Side Project: Risk Imagination

 Hi!

I've finally got a week off work and have put my first morning to good use by finishing the bases of my Risk force!

I'd picked up a copy of Risk from a charity shop for the princely sum of £3 and had the idea of painting up the horde of tiny figures so allow me to play some games of Rebels and Patriots or similar and have got the first batch, the Blues finally done.

The Blues

I've yet to paint artillery and some command stands which I'll need to convert but I'm pretty pleased with how the little guys have turned out. 

I batch painted them 12 infantry or 6 cavalry at a time and what initially looked like it was going to be utterly soul crushing soon became quite relaxing once I got into the swing of things and figured out the best methods of getting the little guys done to a reasonable standard in the minimal amount of time.

Blue Infantry

The figures themselves are surprisingly nice sculpts, despite their rather outsize muskets and are somewhere between 10mm and 12mm scale and I'm a big fan of the tricorns they all sport.

If I use them as is, I've got enough for a roughly 20 point force in Rebels and Patriots but ideally I'd paint up more of the tiny guys until I had enough for a more chonky force but I'm hanging fire on that just now, instead concentrating on getting the stuff painted before moving onto the next.

Blue Cavalry

Its been a really nice change from the big Orcs or Longmyre militia men that I'd been working on earlier this month and I'm really pleased with having got them done and having a mini project that was easily achievable.

Blue Expeditionary Force

The rest of this week is going to be busy in a different way as I've got a commission to work on and we'll also be hoping to trundle off on a few day trips which I'm rather looking forward to as the weather seems to be turning nice (being Scotland, this is liable to change on the regular basis!)

We'll see what I can get painted up next as I seem to have ticked off several bits and bobs that have been sitting for a while now but until then, All the best!