A Man With (a slightly lunatic) Plan

Hi!

Well I seem to have come up with a bit of a plan about my hobby for 2020 and a fair sized chunk of it is going to revolve around getting my long lamented Leviathan project done.

I've reactivated my old Leviathan blog with a bit of a rambling breakdown of what I hope to achieve with it but it basically involves me painting some small warbands using classic Leviathan or other Oldish School figures to finally get a few games using the proper figures and blog about the process.

That's not to say I won't be busy here with 2mm/6mm/15mm stuff or over on Somewhere on the Border with my SD gubbins. I seem to have supercharged myself with creative zeal with over a dozen things painted within the first two weeks of 2020. I've also been working on some illustrations for a new warband for my SD project which will be getting showcased once I have the last couple finished.

I must say that I am hoping that I can keep this enthusiasm going by swapping regularly between scales so that I don't suffer the loss of hobby mojo that has assailed me over the last few years and thus far it seems to be working as I am even enjoying painting 28mm!

But what about my assorted sci-fi stuff that I have worked on over the years, specifically 15mm Rogue Trader? Well I hope to keep working on it and play some games too. I have also a vague plan to incorporate some Megacorporate forces based on Warzone but in 15mm and using whatever suitable figures I have to hand...

As we have my father in law visiting for the next few weeks, I don't have access to my mancave so can't get pictures of my progress till the end of January but my amazing wife has bought me a hobby tray thingy from Hobbycraft which allows me to paint in the living room and even comes with a handy LED light so I can continue with the drawing and figure painting HUZZAH!

Hopefully by the end of January my figure tally will have continued to rise and I will have lots of stuff to show when I finally get my room back and I plan to celebrate with some much needed battle reports too but in the meantime All the best!

The Siren Call of Old Games

Hi!

I've spent most of this week painting my way through some Wood Wodes in 15mm scale but I've been finding myself drawn back to an old project, namely Leviathan.

Approximately once a year I get to wailing and gnashing my teeth about the game which has obsessed me down the years but that I have only played a handful of times and even then I've been reduced to using cardboard counters for the most part as I don't have the space for the suggested 8'x4' board or indeed the 28mm scale figures required.

Titanosaur

Looking back through my blog, there's a constant train of posts where Leviathan is mentioned, referenced and projects started and then stalled but why does this one game which I never played when it was originally released still attract me so much? Why after repeated failures over the last ten or so years do I still look at it and go Hmm...?

 Lesser Goblin Wartower

Is it the rules, the setting, the chunky resin figures or something about reclaiming my youth (I originally picked up the rulebook in the mid 90's whilst at high school) Whatever the reason, I cannot seem to shake the attraction to the game and over the last few years have even managed to play the odd game or so but I never seem to be able to fully succeed with the thing or indeed finally shake my hankering after it.

My previous post listed a few of my successes from last year hobbywise and listed a few of the games that I had been pondering trying my hand at this year and it has got me to thinking about how best to combine this all into some sort of semi coherent plan rather than merely wishlishting.

Necrosaur Wartower

With that in mind, I think I am going to approach the issue from a bit of a tangent. I have a hankering for some skirmish gaming in the world of Aeroth with it's post apocalyptic awesomeness but also the need to play out some of the mass battles I've always imagined with vast machines and titanic monsters fighting alongside hordes of infantry and cavalry.

15mm scale Skirmishes!

 6mm Armies!

SD Scale Boar Company

Now the second part is easy enough to do now I have been working on my 2mm stuff and I figure I should have a decent sized army put together for all four of the original races by the end of the year but the skirmishes are a different manner.

As I see it, I have three options, 1) Buy 28mm stuff and use it to represent disperate warbands of survivors, 2) Use 15mm scale to do much the same and 3) Sculpt my own SD scale stuff.

15mm scale Warbeast

We shall see how I get on but the idea has come to me to use the Aeroth setting as the backdrop for trying out rules from several different games. For example I could run a campaign in one of the ruined megacities of the pre Death Elven civilisation using Mordheim rules and sculpt my own small warbands to duke it out. Similarly, Crucible and Chronopia have great, thematic forces that would make interesting additions to Aeroth so there's the option of mashing several elements together into one mega madness project...

We shall have to see how things progress but I hope it's going to be a year full of hobby shenanigans!

In the meantime, All the best!

2019 Reviewed

Hi!

It's 2020, a new year and a new decade so I thought I'd take a peek back at what I got done during 2019:

First up, I managed to paint 108 things ranging from 2mm up to 28mm in scale.

The Tally

5x 2mm Orc Wartowers

6x 2mm Infantry Companies

9x 28mm Deadloque Undead

3x Flintloque Objective Markers

1x 28mm Undead

1x SD Scale Minion

4x 15mm Dwarves

3x 2mm Dwarf Ironclads

4x 6mm Ultramarine Stands

2x 6mm Goff Ork Stands

6x Rocky Terrain

2x 6mm Eldar Stands

22x 15mm Cowboys

6x 15mm Daleks

7x 15mm Salvage Crew

2x 15mm Boglins

3x 15mm WW2 American Infantry

6x 15mm Steampunk Armoured Suits

1x 28mm Resin Scenic Item

1x SD Scale Battlemech

1x 6mm Goblin Stand

1x 15mm Gargoyle

1x 15mm Man at Arms

1x Teeny Biplane

 Leviathan 2mm Orcs

28mm Flintloque Undead

 15mm Cowboys 

15mm Ironclad Infantry

15mm Homicidal Pepperpots

Oddly I seem to have painted up several decent little warbands in 15mm and 28mm and even fleshed out some smaller scale gubbins too!

On the wargaming front, I managed to play 14 games using 5 different rule systems which is better than the previous year's tally but I really want to expand the odd skirmish into a campaign or two!

 Epic Eldar vs Ultramarines

Boar Company vs Marik Goldhelm's Renegades

Looking forward, I've been planning to work my way through my leadpile, which was depleted somewhat last year, balanced out by picking up a few odds and ends but have a hankering to flesh out the projects I have started and maybe try one or two new ones that have been bubbling under over the last couple of years.

Whilst most of these will be towards the smaller end of the scale, I do have a hankering towards some long term temptations and one or two newer ones.

Oh Which to Choose!

These are the systems that have been interesting me over the last few years that have got me wondering about turning 2020 into an opportunity to put together a warband for at least one or two of them. Now at this point, I'm not sure what scale said force will be as it is entirely conceivable they could be anywhere between 2mm and 28mm.

Over the years I've picked up tons of rulesets and I think 2020 would be a nice opportunity to look back over the last 25 or so years of my hobby obsession!

Looking at the list, some of the options will be easier to put together than others. Whilst some of the miniatures are readily available or at least easily proxied, others such as Chronopia will be a bit more of a challenge to get hold of but we shall see what I can do...

In the meantime, all the best and hope you all have a fab 2020!

Land Ironclads: Leviathan Edition

Hi!

I've spent the last few days pondering my Land Ironclads project with the aim of bringing it to the setting of Leviathan, a project I started late last year and actually got some gubbins painted too before I drifted off on other stuff.

But here we are in December of 2019 and I'm hoping to round out the year by getting the last of the bits and bobs I have painted up and making a start on bringing the other forces and units to life in my alternate post apocalyptic/steampunk/magitech setting.

28mm vs 2mm

The first issue I need to cover is how to translate the units and assorted armies from 28mm into microscale 2mm. Leviathan has lots of big war engines and beasties but I want to really push the envelope a bit to bring in some properly vast stuff the give a sense of scale to my games which will pit teeny tiny infantry and cavalry against battletanks, warbeasts and larger colossal devices of destruction. 

Similarly, I will need to incorporate magic and elemental summoning into my games but Land Ironclads is a pretty flexible system so I'm sure with a bit of bodging it will be ok! 

Thunderhammer battletank

My initial plan is to design and build units representing all the Dwarf and Orc forces available in the book and add my own twist to it and then add the larger stuff, such as the bigger level of Land Ironclads before having a bash at a game or two.

With this in mind, I've ordered some MDF bases so I can crack on with the smaller stuff just now and hope to place a small order with Irregular Miniatures for some 2mm infantry, cavalry and artillery in the next month or so. Hopefully as things progress I will be able to add the Barbarians and Elves before moving onto the other races that inhabit Aeroth as well as building some more 2mm suitable terrain for them all to fight over. 

I must admit that the prospect of finally getting the image I've had in my head out onto the gaming table is rather exciting and I'm hoping to post an assortment of doodles on the blog as I slowly design up the redesigned units and set about sculpting them.

Sadly the closer we get to Christmas, the busier I am at work but fingers crossed I'll be able to grab a few moments to work on my miniproject!

In the meantime, All the best!

Land Ironclads Ponderings

Hi!

I've been a tad busy with work related shenanigans over the last month or so since my last post but have managed to paint some more 15mm gubbins which I will try and get some pics of in the next week or so once the batch of them are all finished but in the meantime I've been pondering a serious return to my fantasy Land Ironclads project.

 Orc Warbeasts with infantry

I started 2019 with quite a bit of activity around the tiny 2mm scale figures and was really progressing well with them until I hit a bit of a roadblock in the form of the infantry. I had tried making my own from cut down plastic grid and while it looked ok, I wasn't entirely happy with it and the project kind of fizzled out.

 Titanosaur Wartowers

I actually managed to play out several games of Land Ironclads and rather enjoyed it's simplicity and how well it worked with a grand scaled fantasy setting too and as we head towards the end of the year, I find myself once again drawn to it and really want to have a second bash at it, especially as I still have several unpainted models.

With that in mind, I've cracked out the paints and hope to add the level 3 Dwarf Ironclad and several Thunderhammer tank formations to my Dwarf collection as well as the command Titanosaur to my Orcs.

Dwarf Ironclad formation on maneuver

I've got absolutely tons of ideas for adding to the project and refuse to let it sit unloved any longer and have decided to place a small order with Irregular Miniatures to furnish me with infantry, cavalry and artillery for this project. I had swithered about this for some time as fantasy races in Aeroth don't use horses but a mottley array of lizards, boars and other, more peculiar mounts but in 2mm scale, I don't think it will matter too much!

I've been rather inspired by some of the blogging over on WRONGHAMMER and IN A WORLD OF PAINT  for in one case rather impressive collection of 2mm armies and the other constant blogging and some interesting conversions and a rather fun battle report so have pulled myself together and will hopefully get the odd post done over the coming week or two!

In the meantime, All the best!

An Update!

Greetings!

It's been a while since I had chance to update my blog as I've been run off my feet with work which has resulted in me being too tired to spend any time with my hobby but I happened to have today off and noticed that Skelp, the wargame show was on so decided to wander up to Forfar for a peruse and see if anything caught my fancy.

I have to say that it was a really disappointing show with only about half a dozen traders and demos along with a few bits and bobs at the bring and buy and I ended up leaving empty handed, a first for me for a wargame show.

I must admit that I've not been for a few years as I always seem to have work on the day but I remember my last visit having a lot more stuff on the go with over a dozen traders and tons of goodies in the bring and buy but instead of inspiring me to crack on with hobby shenanigans, I found myself really disappointed with the whole experience.

Now I do apologise for being so very negative about my visit but I do have fond memories of picking up all manner of interesting things the last time I was there and that there was considerably more to see as well.

Still, I was also oddly relieved as I had vague ideas of picking up some 28mm gubbins for either 40k or Age of Sigmar and am glad that I didn't give in to temptation as I know from bitter experience that the scale holds no real love for me anymore and smaller stuff is the way to go!

With that in mind, I've been spending a bit of time this evening organising my 15mm leadpile and have discovered that I actually have quite a few nice bits and bobs secreted away that are in need of a lick of paint so in a somewhat odd turn of events, the least inspiring show I've been to has become a bit of an inspiration to revamp my wargaming slump!

Saying that, I am off on holiday in a week to Greece for my 40th so suspect that I'll not be posting much till early November but hope that some classical civilisation will be just what I need to see out 2019!

In the meantime, All the best!

Davion Mechs Sighted!

Hi!

While I've been rummaging my Flintloque stuff, I happened across some of my old Battletech SD sculpts and thought it might be rather fun to finish painting them up!

Davion Light Mechs

I've now got three completed in the form of a pair of Valkyries and a Javelin and am now thinking of finally finishing my lance off with a Centurion that I've had on the drawing board for four years. 

I'm rather fond of the little chaps and we shall have to see what I can cobble together in the coming weeks, once my last Deadloque Undead musketeer is finished obviously!

In the meantime, All the best!