Specialist Games You Say?!

Hi!

Well I'm back from work and having survived the torrential rain and driving wind, I find the interwebs ablaze with apparently confirmed rumours that Specialist Games is being relaunched by Games Workshop.

While there seems to be rather a lot of skepticism floating around there, I quite like the idea of classics like Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic and Epic making a comeback.

Epic Goodness!

Looking at the rather scarce information floating around, it does look like GW is concentrating initially on the more 40k elements of the specialist games range (with the exception of Bloodbowl) but how will the new games, if indeed there are, differ from the classic 90's and early 00's classics?

Well one would suspect that the quality of the miniatures, scenery and books will be far higher than of old with Forgeworld taking over design and production. One also suspects that this will result in prices going up rather a lot from the golden days of yore which will no doubt result in lots of frothing but is hardly surprising as GW looks like it's aiming at a boutique and specialist section of the market.

I have my suspicions that some of the games may well change beyond recognition from their predecessors. Just taking a brief glance over the style of the artwork and setting gives some indication that the games are going to be more gothic (possibly GRIMDARK) than before and I even suspect that GW may take the leap from 6mm to 10mm scale for Epic.

Before the wailing and gnashing of teeth begins, just take a look at the likes of Dropzone Commander and the quality of the sculpts they produce. Could GW do something similar? I have my suspicions that they can indeed, especially if it gives them the opportunity to go for some really impressively detailed vehicles and war engines.

Similarly, I foresee interesting changes and developments happening in their other games with rumours of Battlefleet Gothic being ported back to 30k and the Horus Heresy and instead of lots of releases, is it more likely that GW will go for everything in one box like their new game (whose name escapes me now!) and Dreadfleet is anything to go by. It would be nice to think of a more fleshed out range but I do have memories of rumours from a couple of years back with regards to something similar.

Needless to say it's far too early to get too excited or enraged about the whole business but it does sound like we are in for an interesting time in the hobby.

All the best!

Battletech Project: Federated Suns Superheavy

Hi!

Well it's been a totally mental month or so with work and believe it or not this is my first day off since my birthday so unsurprisingly there's been no time to do any hobby related stuff.

What I have managed to do is to finish off a repaint that's been languishing on my painting table for ages. I picked up one of the Matchbox Blockade Buster tanks a while back with intentions of doing something with it in 15mm scale but have decided to shoehorn it into my Battletech project instead!

 Farpoint Defence Force Blockade Buster codename Master Blaster

One of the things I don't like about the old Mechwarrior Clix was the fact that the battletanks were all over the place scale wise so it was quite refreshing to actually paint up something that looks truly menacing to mechs.

Weighing in at 100 tons, the Blockade Buster isn't intended to be a fast moving machine but uses its twin AC10's and 4 heavy lasers to pummel all but the heaviest machines with a single volley.

Despite its powerful weaponry, the FDF has had difficulties making the most of the behemoths as much of the planet is covered in thick forests and the machines have mostly been relegated to defensive positions around Freeport City.

One of the design oddities the Blockade Buster features is an infantry compartment that can transport a full squad.

Battle Armour and Superheavy Battletanks!

Hopefully the paintjob makes it look a little less toy like but I must admit I rather enjoyed painting it up and hope to get a second painted up soon to supplement my forces!

All the best!

For Sale!

Hi!

I'm having a bit of a clearout and am looking to sell one or two bits and bobs!

Warzone Capitol Light Infantry Squad £15 

Epic Ultramarine Detachment plus commander (see below) £30

Converted  Red Redemptionist Cultists £15

 Converted 15mm Scale Slann Warband (plus warchief and 5 more warriors) £20

 Dwarf Warband £20

 Ogre £10

 Space Pirates £30

 Imperial Guard Unit £15

 Mind Eater £6

 15mm scale biogiant £10

 Squiddly Aliens plus cool ride £15

 15mm scale Squat warband £20

 Ancient Gobbo £5

 Scratch Built Ork Squad £30 (5 more painted Orks for another £5

 Evil doers warband £20

Farpoint Salvage £20

Please feel free to get in touch with me for more info and I will include postage to the UK in the price. If you want quotes for further afield, give us a shout!

All the best!

Capellan Confederation Raider Spotted

Good morning folks!

I'm about to head off to work after my first weekend off in what seems like ages but managed to grab a shot of a newly completed mech for my Battletech project!

Capellan Confederation Koshi 

As with my Davion forces, I went for a fairly generic colour scheme that I think turned out quite nicely and handily the mech is still articulated which is a nice extra. I know that the Koshi is a Clan mech but in my reimagined Battletech universe, it's not going to matter, especially as I have a second awaiting the Liao colours. 

I am trying to keep this project to a very tight budget so am using whatever miniatures I have and don't care too much about historical accuracy. Speaking of which, I still haven't settled on scale for the project but will see what I can bodge together using what I have and suspect I will be using 10mm to represent platoon level games and 15mm for smaller squad sized skirmishes. That way I will decrease my unpainted miniatures pile and allow myself to play larger games without needing a vast table!

In other news, my Davion force is continuing to get work done on its bases to represent a somewhat more lush jungle world to match their camo. The results are looking quite promising apart from having dropped the green Blackhawk and broken him into three pieces again! Fortunately repairs have been carried out and he's almost as good as new with a bit of putty to reinforce the feeble joints (which were pinned but still break!)

Hopefully pictures will follow but it's so gloomy this morning that the camera just wouldn't play ball and I only managed to get one shot of the Koshi that didn't blur. 

Controversially, I've made the decision to remove the Oldhammer badge from my blog and give the place a bit of a refresh too as I felt that I couldn't really claim to be a supporter of Oldhammer anymore as I've not posted anything even remotely GWish for ages. 

Hopefully I will get some more bits and bobs added over the next few days but in the meantime, All the best!

A Return to Farpoint

Hi!

Well I've taken a month or so off posting anything up here and find myself drawn back to perusing some of my old blog posts with their mixture of partially successful projects and those that stalled and failed rather quickly and was struck by one that had real potential.

Back in 2013, not long before moving jobs and house, I began work on a 10/15mm scale Battletech project and got as far as painting up some clicky Mechwarrior stuff and stockpiling several more. Sadly at this point, as with so many projects, the dreaded real life intruded and I got offered a new job in a new town so everything got boxed up and forgotten about.

Skip forward to 2014 and I found the figures and even managed to get part of a squad of Davion infantry painted up before losing interest by a new ooh shiney moment and once again the project was shelved.

While sorting through my collection the other week, I found the Mechs sitting at the back of a shelf looking a bit sorry for themselves and decided to give them a bit of a spruce up. They were rather broken following transport from Edinburgh to Dundee and needed a little touching up and I reworked the bases a bit too and quite like how they look:

 Davion Mechs on patrol

I liked what I saw so much, I rummaged out my old Battletech books and had a peruse and was once again struck by how great the setting is and how awful the game itself is. I think I will be working through one or two more bits and bobs that I have lying around. At present I am not sure if I am going to go for a 10mm or 15mm scale infantry with them as I have a fair few of each.

Hopefully I will get one or two more gubbins finished over the remainder of the weekend!

All the best!

Hobby Update

Hi!

Well I find myself on my first day off since returning to work and thought I would take a pause and look at the state of my hobby following my holiday.

It's been an interesting time here as I have sculpted and painted quite a few figures and even actually played several games using them and am even having some success at painting a decent sized warband, namely my Boar Company:

Boar Company!

While I have had huge amounts of fun sculpting, painting and gaming with the little chaps, I have totally ceased work on any other project I was working on, be it warbands for Rogue Trader or my Warhammer/Kings of War army. Instead of mourning the loss of all that Oldhammer, I am having far too much fun with a project I feel I have literally made my own and sunk my teeth into. 

I do apologise to the folks who have been following this blog for quite a while about the sporadic nature of the posts over the last few months and suspect that the stylised stuff I am working on now isn't a lot of folks cup of tea but frankly, I am really enjoying my hobby for the first time in what feels like ages and don't think I am going to be losing interest any time soon.

This does leave me with a bit of a quandary though as what about the other projects I mentioned. Do I simply pack them up and get rid of them, leave them to one side or try and continue them as well? I must admit that I am tempted by the first option, more likely to do the second and worry that the third will result in me doing nothing to be honest...

The sad thing is that I seem to have fallen out of love with most of the stuff I have done over the last few years, be it the fantasy or sci-fi, 6mm-28mm scale stuff. Since I moved house I got my own man cave and a decent sized gaming surface which should have meant that my productivity and hobby related fun should have gone up, instead it's fallen and is littered with stalled and abandoned projects.

Compare that to all the work I have accomplished in the last month or so with Somewhere on the Border. I have found myself revitalised and thoroughly enjoying my hobby again and will soon be adding a third warband, new characters and assorted denizens of Aeroth at a rate that has taken me by surprise!

I must admit that I have a sneaking suspicion that many of my miniatures collection will be making their way to ebay to make space for a project that really seems to have developed a life of its own. Part of me will miss all old school figures but if I am honest, it will only be a very small part of me as I was increasingly finding the whole thing rather stressful.

Therefore, I think it might be a plan to mothball this blog for a little while and see how I feel in a couple of months time. I may find my current project revitalises me and get a fresh urge to paint lots of bits and bobs, but I somehow doubt it.

It's been a good run and thanks to everyone who's followed my ramblings over the years and if you do happen to fancy dropping in on my new project, feel free to take a look at SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER.

All the best

Richard

Revamped Rogue Trader?

Hi!

Well I am now into my second week of holidays and sadly I've not managed to get any of my current leadpile painted but have been ruminating on Rogue Trader.

I constantly see lots of beautifully painted Rogue Trader era lead posted up on several of the rather fantastic Oldhammer blogs out there and it gets me wanting to paint some of the bits and bobs that I have kicking around but as soon as I pick up something to paint, I put it down again in abject failure. I think the problem is that over the last few months, I have been tempted by different styles and scales of miniatures rather than the traditional GW heroic 28mm style of sculpting.

I've been having great fun over on my SOMEWHERE ON THE BORDER blog sculpting super stylised figures such as those seen below but I can't seem to summon much enthusiasm for traditional Citadel or similar.

Boar Company

What I have been tempted by is some of the really amazing figures that the likes of Dark Age is producing of late:

I do believe that Dark Age have really raised the bar on their miniature quality over the last year or so and the combination of good CG sculpts and traditional work as well as the more realistically proportioned figures themselves look fantastic. It has to be said that the painting quality of the figures they showcase looks totally brilliant too (and I would suspect, far beyond my own humble talents!)

Looking at them has given me a bit of an idea though. The visual aesthetic kind of reminds me of Rogue Trader somewhat with the mixture of tech and savagery as well as lots of quirkiness to set things off pleasingly.

Could one use these figures to represent some far flung colony world on the edge of Imperial space? I think they could very well do! Coupled with some of the other bits and bobs that have been creeping onto the market over the last few years such as Malifaux, EDEN and even some of the newer Mantic sculpts, one could represent some of the races of the Imperium without too much difficulty.

With this in mind, I am thinking of picking up a few bits and bobs and painting them up to represent some of the small warbands that inhabit the Farpoint sector as I quite like the look of them and think they fit the reimagined Imperium I've been working on a bit better than the classic Citadel figures I have been failing to make any headway with up til now.

Who knows where this latest foray will take me, I may stall and give up or it may be a bit of a breath of fresh air but we shall see. I am not going to be going mental with ordering lots of bits and bobs though as I don't want to add a mass of stuff to my leadpile, instead I will try a single pack and see how I get on and will post my progress up here but I do think I could do with something different to paint for a change and it may clear the painters block I seem to be having at the moment!

All the best!