It's That Time of Year

It's the time of year when we give in to our desires for drunken midnight passion, then drinking a little more, then drinking a little more, then waking up between midday and 3pm resolving never to do that again.

Happy New Year

 Now on to my resolutions for the coming year, well for the hobby at least.

1. Maintain this blog: It is keeping me motivated and drives me to improve my painting skills. In the last 5 months since starting this blog I believe I have painted more miniatures than in the previous 5 years.
2.  For each miniature I purchase, I will paint 3: I am hoping this reduce my reckless impulse purchases.
3. For each miniature I aquire through gift or trade I will paint a single miniature. I am negotiating a large trade at the moment and I will not be able to paint 3:1 with the number of miniatures in the trade.
4. Complete a 1750pt Warhammer 40k army
5. Complete 1000pts of elves for my Wood Elf army, plus characters: I have a sizable amount of tree spirits but not many elves painted.
6. Complete a 50pt Warmachine or Hordes force
7. Post a picture of at least 1 painted or WIP miniature in each post, starting with the scribe above.

Well that's not a lot to ask of myself,  lets see how many of these I break before years end.

Until next time .......

Mark

These Smurfs are Epic

 I have been cleaning out my back room over this holiday period in order to and came across my Epic Space Marines, I was given these a few years ago after helping out a friend. I can't claim to have painted the tanks in the pictures above. I'm told that they were painted by Dave Taylor while he was editor of White Dwarf Australia, my friend was working in the GW warehouse at the time so it does give this some credibility.

This is my favorite one from the "pre-painted" vehicles, I'm not game to even try to paint the very small marines let alone paint chevrons, checks and squad markings.

I did have a shot at painting a couple of Rhino's. I think I may stick to the larger variety though, while  because quite frankly the predators scare me.

Until next time ......

Mark

A Plesant Suprise

While tearing open gifts under the tree this morning I was, well surprised and delighted to find a double action airbrush in hand. I have been toying with the idea of trying out painting with an airbrush for a while now but haven't been in the position to sink the money into a brush and compressor. The compressor is not yet in my possession, (curse you rural Queensland with your lack of local suppliers) but one is apparently on the way.

Now I am of the understanding that GW's paints are not really up to the task of airbrushing, if anyone who has experience with airbrushing could point me in the direction of a line of paints and thinners I would be greatly appreciative.

I hope all your Christmas's were as awesome as mine.

Until next time .........

Mark

Prancing Dancing Elves

I thought that I would keep in the Christmas spirit with these Wood Elf Wardancers that I have recently finished, there are two more batches to come after this to give me a full unit of 15.

Merry Christmas everyone and a safe and prosperous new year.

Until next time

Mark

Dark Angel's Chapalin and Friends

Here is my work for this week, I quite like the way he turned out. I was hoping to finish off the squad he runs with but unfortunately things got a little hectic towards the end of the week and I wasn't able to get them done.

I did however manage to get an earth elemental, pathfinder goblin #8 and a grey ooze finished for my role play collection.

Until next time .......

Mark

I Think I May Have ..........

I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, since starting this blog four months ago I have painted more miniatures than I had in the previous four years. I have resurrected a lot of old projects and started a couple of new ones, and have found myself in a bit of a jam as I become a little overloaded coming into the holiday season. I have been working on my Circle of Oboros which was the whole reason I started this blog, working on a couple of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K army's, working on miniatures for Role Playing, looking at rules for a couple of new games, running a local wargameing club, laying the ground work for 3 tournaments and a Warmachine/Hordes campaign, participating in a campaign run by Trev from Triple Helix and starting a new job ........ deep breath ........ I have just started working on Skorne for Hordes and teaching some newer players the game of warmachine at the other local gameing club.

Warmachine / Hordes
The game has not grabbed me in the way I thought it would, don't get me wrong it's tactical, challenging, balanced and fun, but for me fun really needs to come before the rest. I will be honest I much prefer running tournaments than playing in them (I would say that I'm insane, but my shrink said I'm not) so I'm not really in the target audience but that has never stopped me in the past, I am going to keep painting and playing it just won't be at the top of the list. I'm also going to put the Skorne back on the shelf I don't have th inclination or the time to work on them along with my other projects.

Warhammer Fantasy
My game of choice at the moment, despite the problems inherent in 8th edition the fact that fun rather than competitive play is at the forefront of the current rules wins it my vote. The only problem I have is settling on an army, of late I have been spinning my wheels while working on my Ogres, Wood Elves, Skaven, VC and WOC all at the same time. I really need to settle on just one project and see it through to the end in order to get some traction and start finishing some miniatures. The Ogres have the whole new and shiny thing going for them at the moment but that is starting to wear off so I will probably start looking at one of my old faithfuls. I have a dwarf army sitting in bits at the moment as well but have so far resisted the urge to start on them as well.

Warhammer 40,000
40k hasn't received much love from me over the last couple of years, but I can't deny that I still love the miniatures. I have shown the results of my work with the guard in a previous post but I have been working steadily on my Dark Angles as well touching up some old work and starting on some additions as well. The other projects I have worked on recently include CSM Word Bearers, CSM World Eaters, CSM The Reborn (pg21 CSM) , Dark Eldar, Craftworld Eldar Blood Angles and Space Wolves. This is another case where I am going to have to sort out my priorities and find a single project to work on, at the moment I am leaning towards the Dark Angles but I have a soft spot for the guard as well.

Role Play
I have a lot of fun GMing a Pathfinder RPG campaign, at least I did while I could find a large enough group of players. With the release of the Beginner Box that may be changing There has been a lot of interest generated by the simplified rules. It also means less miniatures to build and paint due to the reduced beastery, with the added benefit of the cardboard pawns that come in the box that cover all of the monsters in the book. This will free up a bit of time to spend on other projects, as much as I would prefer the miniatures.

The Clubs
Other than the time spent at the venue the clubs don't take up a whole lot of time, things can get a little stressful dealing with the various issues you get between people that deal with each other on a regular basis. This wouldn't be much of an issue in a larger club but we quite often only get 4 or 5 people at a meet which means everyone is in close proximity and dealing with everyone else in the room. To date we have been able to sort things out relatively quickly between ourselves. Unfortunately rumors have been surfacing that there is a bit of a feud between the two clubs in the area, Kingaroy Wargamers which I have a hand in running and the other club that can't seem to settle on a name. Now that I am working in Kingaroy on Fridays I have started droping in having a chat and helping out a couple of guy's that have recently started playing Warmachine and Hordes. Unfortunately know one I have spoken to knows what this feud is about, I am sure it is simply a misunderstanding and could be sorted out quickly if I could find someone that knows what the issue is.

Tournaments and Campaigns
Each year I organize a Warhammer Fantasy tournament called Tricksters Blade and this year will be no different, I am also running a 40k tournament in mid January in order to catch the locals who are off at University and Boarding School during the year. I am planing a Warmachine/Hordes tournament for late next year that might go by the title Movember Melee if I can pull everything together. And I'm putting a Warmachine/Hordes campaign together as well, this won't start until our current Warhammer Fantasy campaign comes to an end sometime next year. The Claw and Iron campaign pack is available on scribd for anyone who wants a look.

Well I think I have rambled on for long enough now and I am impresed if you have made it all the way to the end. I am hoping this will be able to help me get my head together and sort out which projects I want to work on which should in turn increase both turnout and quality of my painting. Here's to future succeses.

Until next time

Mark

Pathfinder Beginner Box in Review

I don't normally do this sort of thing but it has been a long time since I have been this excited about a release, I am a pathfinder RPG fan boy after all.

Box Contents:

• Getting Started sheet
• A set of 7 dice in bright red. d4, d6, d8, 2x d10, d12 and a d20
• 4 pre-generated characters a Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric eack based on one of Paizo's iconics
• 4 blank character sheets
• Hero's Handbook
• Game Masters Guide
• 3 A4 pages of cardboard cut out pawns with plastic bases
• 2 sided battle mat with one side blank and the other with a dungeon
• A page of adds

The Important Stuff:

The Hero's Handbook; contains a simplified character creation section that includes rules for 3 races Dwarves, Elves and Humans. 4 simplified character classes the Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric each up to level 5, along with a simplified set of Skills, Feat's and Equipment. After the character creation section there are rules for combat that have the more complex ideas stripped out, like attacks of opportunity and combat maneuvers like trip and bull rush.  There is also a fun little choose you own adventure style solo adventure, that introduces new players to the basics of the game and to the story telling methods used to in role playing. I was sceptial of the value of this mini adventure, but after playing through it definitely has its merits. I also discovered that I can roll these dice as poorly as I roll any others.

The Game Masters Guide; opens up with an adventure that is set in the dungeon that is on printed on one side of the provided battle map. While not a major issue the adventure leaves a party of four players with less than half of the required experience to level up, so it may disappoint a few players. The book includes a fairly extensive beastery and has a lot of tips for GM's to build their own adventures. There are chapters dedicated to magic items, traps and the various conditions adventures will face during their careers which makes the book a useful reference for experienced GM's as these sections are much the same as the relevant sections of the core rulebook but are condensed into a much more practical format.

The Battle Map; has one side of the haunted dungeon flip mat produced by Paizo and the other is a blank grid surface, both sides can be drawn/written on with wet or dry erase markers and is made from sturdy card stock. The map folds up to around the size of an A4 sheet but if it is stored or transported in this manner I have found these maps are a little difficult to work with as they are prone to not sitting flat on the table top, storing and transporting the map flat can cause some logistical problems though.

The pawns; are made with quality art and are fairly sturdy, the cardboard they are made of will fray over time so it might be worth sealing the edge with PVA to hold them together. There are plastic bases provided to stand these in, but there are no where enough for all of the pawns so the bottom edge of the cardboard will become damaged after repeated swapping of bases. It would have been nice to see a larger base in the set as well for the larger creatures, but as long as a little common sense is used this should not be an issue.


The Pre-generated Characters; are set out nicely with all sorts of helpful hints printed in the margins, it would have been nice to have something like this available when I started playing as I had no idea what I was doing.

Ongoing Support; is being provided by Paizo through the beginner box section of their web store they have already posted an adventure and the rules needed to play the barbarian class along with a few new options for each of the classes included in the beginner box

Overall I am very happy with the Pathfinder Beginner Box it has everything you need to start playing and keep you and a group of friends entertained for hours, locally there has been a large increase of interest in the Pathfinder RPG singe the release of the beginner box. I have gone from struggling to get enough players to make a party to now having 8 or 9 potential players, as people who were intimidated by the 576 page core rule book are more than happy to give the game a go now.  I also have a couple of people willing to give GMing a go which will be a nice change of pace, I have been running games of Pathfinder RPG since the first alpha play-test release but I am yet to sit on the other side of the screen.

Until next time

Mark

WIP Chaos Sorcerer

I started this guy a number of years ago with grand plans in mind, but lost momentum with the army and he was left sitting on the shelf gathering dust. After watching Tim's video tutorial on sculpting Barbaric Fur I felt inspired and picked up the sorcerer and sculpted a shag pile rug on his back. This is the first time I have done anything with green stuff other than filling gaps, and I don't think he has turned out too bad.

Wow ........ a finished squad

As the title suggests I have managed to finish a whole squad, and their transport too. I have to say that I'm not known for doing that sort of thing, I must be sick or something.

IG Veteran Squad 1

While it is difficult to see I have done some work on the Chimera since I posted a pic a few weeks ago, mainly some shading, highlighting and a little detail work.

Chimera

I was hoping to get a bit more done but I have been dealing with a bit of  a painful affliction over the last week and a half which has left me not wanting to do much in the way of painting and blogging (Gout is not my friend). I have however done some work on some campaign and tournament packs for early next year, here are the details for a Warmachine/Hordes campaign we will be running once our current Fantasy campaign has run it's course (there may be some minor alterations made and I will be adding some scenarios soon). And people have been asking me to run a 40k tournament in December / January for a while now so that UNI students can join in the fun while they are on their main holiday break of the year. I should have the players pack finalized and a hall booked within the week if all goes according to plan, which if history has anything to say it's not going to happen


Dishonorable Mention

After my last game in the local Warhammer Fantasy campaign I promised my opponent the Mr Nathan "Chopper" Goodchild that I would make mention of the wondrous Lord Tyrant Hitch My Skirt Up And Run Like A Little Girl, the leader of the Bloodmaw Tribe. Who after skillfully dispatching a Grave Guard Champion fled a total of 32" in three turns to lead the charge back to camp while my Slaughtermaster managed to destroy Ghouls, Vampires and Skeletons  without breaking a sweat on the other side of the board. 8 strength 7 weapon skill 10 attacks will tend to do that.

Lord Tyrant Hitch My Skirt Up And Run Like A Little Girl (not painted by me)

Until next time
Mark

Purple Hippie Druids

I have finally decided on a colour scheme for my Druids, and it can be summed up in one word PURPLE. Now that I have this sorted I should see some progress on the rest of the army.

I have also been able to get some work done on my Ogres. I'm using this guy as a BSB at the moment, he will become my Irongut or Maneater standard bearer when I get inspired enough to build something a little more character worthy.

Until next time

Mark

A Little Distraction

I have become a little distracted of late when it comes to the hobby especially with the thought of needing to move for work. I really haven't wanted to start anything new but it doesn't look like that is going to happen so back to it.

I have been working solidly on some campaign markers for Trev's Norsca in Flames Campaign. While I only really needed to get a marker done for myself some of our club members are not known for their dedication to the hobby, so I did some for them and then some extras just in case. Here are the first nine, there are a few more still on my painting bench that I need to finish.

The Ogre Cave is the marker for my own capital and the others are fore whomever needs them. Sadly six of the seven players partaking in the campaign have ended up using one these markers.

I have also managed to get a start on my Ironblaster for the Ogres here is a WIP pic of the Rhinox, I'm quite happy with the way it is looking at the moment.

Until Next Time

Mark

A Technical Glitch

I have been busy on a few projects over the last couple of weeks, I have almost completed the Imperial Guard squad I started in my previous blog, I have a solid start on a couple of Ogre projects to get my army ready for an upcoming campaign run by Trev over at Triple Helix and I have managed to get some work done on my Circle of Oboros. Pictures of these projects will be posted as soon as I have a new lamp for my light box. I did however, manage to get some pictures of a couple of miniatures finished for my role play collection.

Ettin from Reaper's P-65 Range

More Goblins from Reaper's Pathfinder Range

A set of Lizards from an old GW Swarm

Things have been put on hold in regards to the 40k tournament, I may be moving for work in the next couple of weeks. While it is an exciting time it has come up rather suddenly and has put a hold on a number of plans I had for the local club Kingaroy Wargamers and well life in general.

Until next time

Mark

A Friday Night at Home

Now what does someone do when they are not out slurring their words with mates on a Friday night, they paint a test model - that's what they do. I think I started my imperial guard army around the release of the current codex. I had a Chimera laying around purchased for one reason or another, most likely because it was shiny and I didn't already have one (come on we've all done this at some stage) and decided to add an army to it. I spent a few hundred dollars on miniatures and then sat them in the corner to gather dust as I went on to other projects. Fast forward to today and "ta da" - a painted miniature.

IG Test Mini

 I have discovered that I am still having trouble with the eyes, but with another 50 or so miniatures left to go I should have them about right by the end of the project.

The Inspiration

With a little work the Chimera will be ready for the table all I need then is a squad to go in it, and the rest of the army of course.








With plans under way for a 40k tournament early next year sometime around late January or early February I would like to have a playable force finished before then. While I will be the T.O. and therefore unable to compete on the day it would be nice to have a painted army for the practice games with the local attendees in the lead up. Details will be made available in the coming weeks as dates and venues are finalized. 

Until next time

Mark

A Quick Roundup

After sitting here for more than a week with a serious case of writers block I have decided to just throw up a few pictures of what I have been doing over the past couple of weeks. I have a solid start to an Ogre Blood Bowl team done along with a few miniatures I need to run the We Be Goblins Free RPG day module from Paizo Publing, which should be a lot of fun with everyone playing as Goblins. I also have a Half Orc Rogue in there that I started some time ago that I finely finished.

The Front Line

The goblins most feared enemy

Goblins

Half Org Rogue

The Goblins other most feared enemy

And another one just for fun

Giant Spiders

I have a few more goblins to paint along with an Ettin that I would like to finish before my next blog post, I am having trouble settling on one war gaming project long enough to get anything finished, but now that Trev from The Triple Helix Project has kindly volunteered to run a Warhammer Fantasy campaign at the local club so I may get a few things for my Ogre Kingdoms army done.

Until next time

Mark

So much time so little hobby

As the title suggests I have not done a lot with regards to the man dollies over the last few weeks. I blame my rediscovery of the X-Box the horrible little time waster that it is. (I think I've spent more time on it than I did when I was flood bound in January)

I did manage a game of Warhammer Fantasy against Nathan Goodchild to help him prep for the upcoming Australian Warhammer Masters. The resault was unfortunately a foregone conclusion before we even deployed, he was trying out a list using my Dwarves which left me with my Wood Elves, which just can't stand up to massed flaming/magical artillery.

I have managed to get some conversion and painting done as well, I have an Ogre Butcher of Death converted and mostly painted, ready to be unleashed when my copy of the army book finally turns up (ebay from the states I just couldn't justify AU$69 for the book).

Butcher of Death

Coming up in the next couple of weeks I have a 5000pt multiplayer game of fantasy at our next club meet that I need to get some Dwarves done for. There are a few RP conventions coming to Brisbane in October (AUScon II and Paizo con) that I am going to try and get to so I need to get a couple of character miniatures painted for them. It will be a nice change from DMing, it's been a few years since I have been able to just sit back play and just enjoy myself at the table (not that I don't enjoy DMing, it just takes a lot of work and is a very different experience).

Bent over the proverbial ………

Some Gaming

Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to get in a few practice games, none of which ending well for me. I realize now that I have a minor miss calculation in starting off using the Circle of Oboros faction to learn the WarmaHordes game, they are by no means a beginners faction. I have however made my decision and I will be sticking to it.

I have to pass on a big thanks to Trev from The Triple Helix Project who has recently started collecting the Legion of Everblight faction for a couple of great 25pt games over the last fortnight the most recent being a hard fought assassination game that left his caster standing with only a single damage box while mine was unceremoniously destroyed by his Carnivean's breath attack. I also managed a 50pt and 35pt games against some vastly more experienced local players who are hitting the tournament circuit at the moment, while I learned a lot during these games I don't think I am really ready for the larger games yet.


Some Painting

Now when it comes to painting my eclectic nature came to the fore, while I did start on the Tharne Ravagers, I got a little side tracked and painted a few other minatures from the collection. I managed o finish two units of Shifting Stones, a Feralgeist Solo and a Gorax Light War Beast, I have also started on a unit of Tharne Bloodweavers.

Gorax

 The Gorax was an absolute dream to paint and was done in an afternoon.

Shifting Stones

It's probably a bit cheeky to call the Shifting Stones a completed unit, but they were quick and easy to do and as a lazy painter that really appealed to me.

Bloodweavers

Test paint job

 These ladies are the Tharn Bloodweavers who I am trying out a technique that is primarily the use of washes over a whit undercoat, so far they don't look too bad.

The Feralgeist

The Feralgeist, while yes being another easy to paint miniature is almot a must have in a hordes force. He is able to possess beasts that have fallen in battle, yours or your opponents do some damage then once the beast has been slain again pop out ready to possess the next.

Some Other Stuff

I have also bee busy assembling some miniatures that I have obtained for a Protectorate of Menoth force that I have recently purchased. I am cheating a bit with these miniatures as a number of the have come pre-painted and the rest will be painted by a local contract painter as part of the deal. While there is some temptation to use these miniatures to learn the game ( it would be a lot easier than using the Circle) I will stick with the circle for now, it's always more satisfying using miniatures you have painted yourself.

I am also in the process of planing a campaign for the local gaming club Kingaroy Wargamers to add a bit of spice to our games of WarmaHordes. I am also being tempted to return to the realms of the 41st millennium and revisit my Warhammer 40,000 collection after a break from the game for almost 2 years, and start the Blood Angles Army I have always wanted (I think I can make a 2500pt army from what I have in my bits box). It may also be worth having a look at the Apocalypse sized Imperial Guard and Eldar army's I have stored in bits at the moment as well. I also have a dragon almost ready to paint for a possible Warhammer Fantasy Storm of Magic game that should be happening soon.

So while I did intend this blog to be a catalog of my exploits of my foray into the Iron Kingdoms with my Circle, it may yet become yet another general wargameing blog, oh well that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Until next time

Mark

P.S.

I just have to add I have recently come across some blogs regarding gamers working with charaties and just felt I needed to give them a bit of a shout out and recognize their good work over at the Realm of Lead Addiction , Blood Ravens Army Project and the Heros of Armageddon . Keep up the good work.

A new day a new challenge

I have recently been challenged to a WarmaHordes Painting Comp. The guidelines are as follows:

• You must paint all of the miniatures yourself.
• You need to paint 1 caster, 1 beast/jack, 1 unit and 1 solo.
• You need to provide evidence that the miniatures you painted were unpainted at the start of the comp.
• They need to be painted by an upcoming tournament in Brisbane in the not to distant future ( I will update when and where as soon as I have the details)

The miniatures I have chosen are
pKaya

Feral Warp Wolf

Tharn Ravegers with Cheifton UA (2 more Mini's to come for the full unit)

And a Druid Wilder Solo that should arrive with the extra Ravagers next week.

I have been told that the competition will be judged on one of the many wargameing forums out there but yet again the details have not been provided to me.

I will be providing regular(ish) updates over the next few weeks to make up a bit of a painting diary and subject you to few bits and pieces about my efforts on the table top.

Until next time ..... try and play nice

Well here goes ..........

First a little ditty on why I am subjecting the world to this.  Like so many other Warhammer Fantasy players I have been left a little disillusioned after the release of Warhammar Fantasy 8th Edition and have gone looking for more furtive pastures, and like many others I have been seduced by Privateer Press's Warmachine and Hordes games and miniature lines. That said this blog is not intended to rag on Games Workshop but rather catalog my trials and tribulations as I start fresh with a new rules system and a new Army.


Game System: Hordes

Faction: Circle of Oboros