Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 12

 Hi!

As I mentioned in my previous posts, all this lockdown shenanigans have got me thinking about some sci-fi gubbins.

In an ideal world, I'd be tempted to go for Warzone as a suitable project that has a low model count and awesomely chunky and characterful figures but the figures are a bit difficult to get hold of these days and rather expensive to boot. They are still available from Prince August in Ireland but they're rather pricier than I'm willing to spend my limited funds on.

I've also found myself tempted, despite myself by the thought of some 2nd edition 40k even though I've posted that I wanted to move away from GW stuff. The sterling work of the Oldhammer Army Challenge and Dr the Viking's 2nd edition 40k community challenges got me really tempted to try my hand at putting together an army but thus far I've been strong and resisted the temptation!

Instead I got to thinking about Void 1.1 and Kryomek, which are both games I've had figures for in the past and in Void 1.1's case, I've actually played it a few times too.

Handily Void 1.1 seems to be getting a bit of love these days as Seb Games has started selling them under licence from Scotia Grendel and is starting to get more sculpts and even producing some supplemental stuff that is really heartening to see.

Syntha Troops

With this in mind, I've rummaged out my old copy of the rules and will be sitting down to give them a good read and review which I'll post here along with some random musings with regards to their usability for other games too.

If I can get our spare room/library/man cave sorted out and into order I'll also try out a few games to see how I get on and fix the rules in my mind. 

I'll also do a breakdown of each faction and my initial thoughts on how they operate on the table. Initially I suspect I'll be using counters to represent figures as it's a quick and easy way to get some cheap games in to get used to the rules and I'll slowly paint up some gubbins over the course of the next few months.

From initial perusal and from memory, Void 1.1 works really well in small scale skirmishes with 20-30 figures and a vehicle or two and I should be able to put a game together on my modest gaming board.

I'll do a rulebook review tomorrow along with my initial thoughts on the game so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 11

 Hi!

I've spent much of today painting Dwarves so tomorrow should have the first of my Boar Company reinforcements finished which is rather exciting but today also saw the completion of another Leviathan Orc!

I've enjoyed working on this guy and his big shield added lots of character!

Now I just need to paint the last two and I'll have a full pack done which is rather exciting and I seem to be getting more gubbins painted than I expected and am slowly but surely working through my lead pile and will keep churning through my collection to see how much I can clear up during lockdown.

I experimented a bit with the base this time round and quite like the muddy brown touch but will need to get some clump foliage or static grass to give it the finish that the other figures in my collection have.

With these guys done, I plan to get some Rusty Robots painted as I've got a fair stack of sculpts sat waiting a lick of paint and I've found some assorted gubbins that I'm keen to get painted and I'm also contemplating some smaller scale stuff that I've got lying around that could do with getting some paint on them.

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 10

 Hi!

Well it's just been announced that the lockdown here in Scotland is going to be longer than first announced (and one suspects longer still than the Scottish government is willing to admit) which is infuriating that once again I'm not able to get back to work for the foreseeable future. On the plus side, this will give me the chance to get on with some more hobby stuff which is good!

I've just finished the new Boar Company recruits and will spend the next day or two painting them up which I am really looking forward to and will post updates as I go.

I'm also working on a second Leviathan Orc which I hope to get finished over the course of this evening and tomorrow morning so we shall see how things go.

With this new lockdown announcement, I may have to expand my hobby planning to stay sane and it might be a good opportunity to re-explore my love of old and forgotten games. There's so many fascinating games that may have passed folks by it seems like a shame to miss this opportunity to give things like Vor, Void or Kryomek a bit of love too!

I need to get my thinking hat on as I'm as usual veering wildly off on a tangent but I can't help but feel that 2021 may yet mean more painting and posting while we await things returning to normal post lockdown and Covid...

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 9

 Hi!

Here's the next of the lockdown painting progress!

He's another Elven Voltigeur from the original Flintloque boxed set. I was having a bit of a wobble about him as I painted him but perseverance saw him finished and looking good. I went for a pale tan for his trousers instead of pale blue and like the finish more than the first Elf. 

As it's a skirmish game, I will be giving them a largely similar paint style but will add the odd colour change to give a bit of variety and stop me from getting bored.

Here's a side by side with Sharke himself:

I'm continually surprised by just how nicely the Flintloque range paints up and it's looking promising for me to get all 15 painted over the course of the lockdown.

I'm now tempted to pick up some Dwarves so I can paint some Krautian troops to mix in with my collection as I remember having the old Landwehr back in the day but I'm being careful with the pennies at the moment and have plenty other gubbins that I can paint in the meantime.

In other news, my Dark Star wielding Dwarves for my Boar Company are nearing completion, just needing some details and armour finishing and will show them tomorrow once I have them done and will get them primed up and ready for painting.

With all the progress I've been making, I need to take a peek at my Rusty Robots to see if I can get some more of my tribes painted and more stuff sculpted too!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 8

 Hi!

Here's what I've been working on over the last couple of days, a bunch of new recruits for my Boar Company and my Somewhere on the Border project!

Inspired by the Chronopia Dark Tusk's, these little guys are eventually going to be wielding two handed Morning Stars to give the opposition a damn good thrashing! At present, they still need arms, weapons and crests adding but I'm quite pleased with progress thus far.

I'm really enjoying getting some sculpting done and hope to have these chaps ready to paint in the coming week. The guy on the right of the first picture is going to be another character, armed with a sword and boar spear. 

I'm hoping to get some more humans done in the next batch of sculpts which will bulk up my adventuring party retinue before moving onto Marik Goldhelm's renegades and either Barbarians, Horned Folk or Orcs as I really want to add another force to the mix.

As usual, I am drifting off on a tangent but am enjoying myself and that's the main thing during Lockdown but I've not forgotten my other projects as I am slowly painting up another Elven Voltigeur when I'm not sculpting and will need to take another look at my Rusty Robots to give me some sci-fi stuff to work on as well!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 7

 Hi!

No miniatures today I'm afraid, although I have loads of bits and bobs in the works, be it sculpts of my own or Flintloque stuff.

Instead I've been playing around with Leviathan and trying out some concepts that I've had floating around for a while now.

I just don't have the space for big boards and tons of figures at the moment so I'm using cardboard counters to represent units in a somewhat smaller scale (something between 6 and 15mm I suspect) to give me the chance to put the original rules through their paces and create new units to try out. 

Here's a 2000 point Elf force for example:

The force consists of a bunch of infantry supported by cavalry, warbeasts and some summoned nasties and I will eventually have enough stuff to represent any force that I fancy which isn't too bad for the cost of some coloured card and some pens.

It's not as visually pleasing as actual miniatures but in the current lockdown and furlough, cheap is good! 

I plan on posting up a battle report featuring my new Elves against either Orcs or Dwarves and will post my experiences over on my Leviathan blog in the next day or two. I plan to get a day of playtesting in to really give each force a good shakedown as the last time I played, the Elves were frighteningly nimble whilst the Dwarves use of heavily armoured vehicles and lots of long range firepower gave each a very different style of play.

Speaking of which, I keep finding myself tinkering with how the game runs and forces are put together as I like the multi base approach for a mass battle game with lots of big beasties and am finding it more similar to a sci-fi game than fantasy as there's a lot of interesting options to play around with for ranged combat and an assortment of other gubbins that I hope to cover in greater depth another time.

It's been a week and I am finding myself being fairly productive with the lockdown induced hobbying and will see if I can keep up the content going forward!

In the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 6

 Hi!

Here's my latest addition to the new lockdown project, a Boar Company standard bearer for my Somewhere on the Border project!

I've had this guy half built for at least three years now and spent a bit of time yesterday finishing him off. I'm quite pleased with the little boar banner top and game wise, it's got a spell eater stone built into it to divert the arcane menaces of Marik Goldhelm, the Boar Companies long time menace.

I'll need to get some more of the little guys made as it's rather fun to get on with some sculpting. Hopefully I'll get chance to paint him up tomorrow and he'll be added to the roster for a new year battle report!

Tomorrow being new years day is penned in for a bit of Leviathan gaming and if I get the chance I may paint up a Rusty Robot too!

In the meantime, All the best and here's hoping 2021 is better than 2020!