Attack Track

I found myself in Walmart the other day and while I was there I went through the matchbox selection hoping to find an elusive Rotowarrior. I came up empty handed. I did find a LARGE number of Matchbox Attack Tracks though, and bought a couple for $1 each. I had picked up a dual launcher a little while ago that was decent scale, but I thought these might be on the small side, but for the low price I figured why not.


As I suspected it was a little small, but not uselessly small.  Here is one of them taken with a small force of Sahadeen from Rebel Minis

For the low price these could easily be a remote launcher platform, or perhaps something cooler with some conversion skills.  I'm not sure what I will use mine for, but I am sure I will figure something out.

Song Of Blades and Heros: Skirmish club

This past Saturday the new Skirmish Gaming Club at the local games store (Sentry Box) had it's first official games.

We played a few games here and there to learn the rules earlier but this was the first official game day.

During the day the various members got in a 3 way battle, a 2 way battle and a 4 way battle.


Orcs vs Chaos Dwarves vs Goblins/Minotaurs
Elves vs Halflings
Orca vs Elves vs Halfings vs Chaos Dwarves


What follows is the Battle Report of the "Orcs vs Chaos Dwarves vs Goblins/Minotaurs" battle from the Orcs side of things.


The three armies approached the lightly forested area each moving forward to the place in a small copse of trees that held long forgotten magic gems.

The Minotaurs and Orcs reach the trees first with the Chaos Dwarves taking their time due to.....motivational issues, and a bad starting set of activation rolls.

The Minotaurs and Goblins begin to search the trees but come up empty handed as the Orcs arrive on the scene and begin their own search of the area.

Finally an Orc finds a magic gem and begins to move away hoping to get off the field, likewise the goblin horde also finds and begins to move some gems.  Finally the Chaos Dwarves arrive to attack the flank of the Orcs and Goblins.  A small skirmish occurs with the Orcs and a Chaos Dwarf is knocked down.

Finally the Orcs manage to kill one of the Dwarves, but as they do the hulk of an Ogre shows up and smashes the victorious Orc to the ground, at the same time a second Dwarf appears and the combined effort of him and his leader another Orc is brought to the ground and killed.

The Orc Chieftain falls under the combined attacks of Dwarves and Goblins, but he is tough and despite being pressed down and kept off balance maintains his position.  In the north the second unit of flanking Dwarves has begun to push through the wall of Goblins.

The Ogre and Chaos Dwarves push in and attack the Orc with the gem knocking him down in a mad melee to gain control of the magic rock.  In the trees the Orc swordsmen engage with the Minotaurs in an effort to claim the stones for their shamans.

The Orcs in the trees are no match for the larger, stronger Minotaurs and are pushed down and back in the frenzy of battle.  The Orc Chieftan stays strong and despite overwhelming odds stands up madly slashing with his axe at the 4 opponents trying to bring him down.

In the north the goblins hold their own, knocking down the chaos dwarf and begin to swarm him.

The swarm of Goblins proves too much and while fallen two of the goblins swarm over the dwarf while a third ends his life with a dagger.

 

The Orcs in the trees fair horrible and another Orc falls gored by the Minotaurs before the last Orc Swordsman runs for his life.  The Great Orc Chieftan makes his last stand as the final three enemies he is engaging finally deliver more damage than he can stand and forces him to the ground for the last time.

 

The final Orc recovers his wits and turns to meet his final doom as a Chaos dwarf and their Hobgoblin allies show up to end his life.

As killing swept the battlefield the main engagements took place between the Orcs and Chaos Dwarves leaving a fairly open corridor for the Goblins and Minotaurs to grab and escape with the magic gems.

Orcs.

Over the past week I have made a effort to finish off my Orc warband.  I had enough models to build a workable SoBH warband, but I wanted more options as well, and I had a few more models to paint.


I had 3 guys left, and they had been sitting on my bench for a long while.  Late last week I started painting two of the Orcs so I would have them to play on Saturday.  Saturday morning, I abandoned the twin painting and finished one guy.  This week I finished the second and last night I painted up my Goblin shaman.

The next project is a VSF flavored warband for In Her Majesties Name.

Working on the last two Orcs, most base coating is down.

Orc completed for games on Saturday.  Shield Orc was put off.

 

Finished shield man.  He has a lot of red staining all over him: armor, shield, sword, face.  I have dumbed him "The Butcher"

 

Goblin Shaman in progress.  Mostly completed.

  

Goblin Shaman and The Butcher.  I added black to finish of the shaman's base as well.



Basic Basing. Vallejo Grey Pumice.

In the past I took a pretty simple approach to basing.

1. Attach miniature to base
2. Place glue on base.
3. Dunk in sand
4. Let dry
5. Coat in watered down glue.
6. Let dry.
7. Paint
8. Drybrush
9. Add some green maybe.

Pretty simple, still I knew and have seen a few people talk about pumice on various youtube videos.  I was ordering some paint on line and I thought what the heck.

1) Apply Vallejo pumice to base.

2) Wait to dry. Paint and Dry brush.

In general this product is an AWESOME way to add texture to your base.  The simplest and easiest I have tried.  I would definitely recommend this product for you figures.

 

 

Cave Troll - WIP - Finished

In testing the new airbrush primer(71.097), which after use I note is actually gunship grey from the Vallejo Air Colors lines, I ended up painting my Troll model a pretty dark grey, much darker than I had anticipated.



A quick look online and I came across this note on Vallejo's website:

7.5. Is your Model Air color 71.097 the same product as the new primers?

No, this is simply a grey color, created years ago in the Model Air Line. We are changing the name to Base Grey precisely in order to avoid misunderstanding.



So buyer beware when ordering online eh?



I decided to roll with it as I had been considering a cave troll anyhow.

In the above image the troll has been painted with 71.097 and then given a black wash, followed by re-highlighting with the 71.097 grey.

Still coming back into this 28mm hobby, but so far I am pretty happy with how this guy is coming out.






updated post with completed troll.

Workspace Upgrade - Initial ideas

One of the things that allows more productivity is a nice workspace.  I know from experience that having a clean and organized space not only allows you to find and use your supplies better but also just makes you more likely to want to spend time there.

 

In the areas in my house that I see this play out the most are:

 

Kitchen: Clean and dishes put away etc.  Much more likely to want to actually cook vs eating crappy take out.

Drawing: When the table is clean, not cluttered and my tools are close, I am much more likely to use the space.

Jewelry: I have a lot to get done.  I haven't worked on anything in a long time.  Partially due to being busy, but partially simply because it's a total mess right now.

Model area:  Again total gong show right now and that has made me less likely to want to be in it.

 

As this blog is about the war gaming hobby, as you can imagine we are going to be looking at my model space.

 

As you can see there is a slight semblance of order, but really it's a mess with everything everywhere.

I thought I would start this with a list of things I would like to do to make things better.

 

• Paint storage.
• Paintbrush area.
• Terrain bits storage area.
• Figure storage area.
  

These are all my first initial thoughts and will take some time to get organized and move forward with.  I am hoping with a basic idea I can approach the problem in smaller steps and accomplish my goal.

 

Song of Blades and Heros.

The store is planning on having some painting days in January and February and then our actual first games after that.  Several people were more gung-ho and met a few times to play a few games.  This is the second meeting and the first one I could make it to.  We had 5 people show up in the end and so played a 4-way with our fifth member acting as a ref as he had already played one of the games.

As we are still new, not everyone had figures or had painted figures, but we had enough to go around.  The following photos are from my perspective as the Orcs.  On my right was a group of elves and on my left a group of rat men.  Kitty corner from me was a band of goblins lead by two minotaurs.  The game's goal was to get into the tower, get a crate and exit the board.  

Our initial layout moving into the game.  Orcs are set and read to do some killing.

The Orcs and Elves advance but a failed quality roll leaves my troll behind.

Elves move up to the tower building as my Orcs attempt to re-form their unit.  The rats move up against the low wall.

The first elves enter the building and set up a firing position so that the remaining elves can get the treasure.

Orcs move into the doorway as the first minotaur comes around the corner to harass the remaining elves that have no climbed into the building.

The elves continue to move up and into the tower.  The rats use this opportunity to come scurrying out of the ruined building and attack the Orcs.  In a bloody battle several rats are killed including a rank and file swordsorc getting lucky and killing their rat ogre.  One of the minotaurs enters the ground floor of the building.

The elves continue to climb up and grab the treasure mostly un harassed while the Orcs and rats fight a bloody battle outside the building.

Finally after an intense battle the Orcs cause the rats to flee in panic, but it is all too late as the elves make it out of the building with the treasure and can not be stopped before reaching the table edge.