99 of 100

My 100th post, who would have thought........ I try not to :)

Just a quick note for the mo. I've found the blog to be an excellent source of continuing motivation and with some time away over the Bank Holiday I've felt a genuine to finish the Terminators and claim some PPs.

Painting them as a nine I could have just picked one to avoid an NIL result, as to my shame I've done previously, but I decided... NON!!

Man up Fase, make it or break it and I've made it,... or at least 99%. It's just markings required now so I'm happy to award myself the points (21 at 3 a piece) to avoiding rushing that last 1% which can make such a difference.

Photos to follow :)

Update: (27/08/10)

I had a bit of unexpected brush-time last night so here you are! I'm incredibly pleased with them, they must be the best figures I've painted all year, for several reasons.

Thats also anothe full project complete with a fully painted copy of Space Hulk at my disposal. Beast actually play some games now!!

Sweatin' to the Oldies

Well not literally you understand but it was proper "Old Skool" roleplaying last night, with requisite ROCK bull-fists and possibly a bit of AC-DC going on......

...... "For those about to ROLE, we Salute You!" :)

Overly fastidious character sheets.. Check!
Ornately crafted many sided dice.. Check!
Dungeon floor plans.. Check!
Lardy snack foods.. Check!
"I hit it with my sword".. Check!

A good old fashioned D&D dungeon hack... get in! Straight back to my youth, though we seem to have traded cheap, weak beer in for tea. Don't seem to mind :)
Having previously played 4th edition and been somewhat non-plussed by some of the newer bits, mainly those involving lots of cards and chips i.e. stuff you need to remember, Jon has done an excellent job of producing a D&D 3.5 variant that we're all much happier with.
I tend to remember this as session three and our second within the "Chamber of Eyes". I've not always been the greatest fan of bought pre-planned adventures but delivery is all and Jon has done an excellent job.

Any adventure is going to be relatively linear and during my recent stint as DM I always tried hard to create that all important "illusion of choice", forcing the players to make "real" choices. Hopefully I did as well as Jon is now.
This session went much better than our last. Pretty much all of our plans came off and we were a much more effective "combat unit".

Admittedly i'd forgotten that last time round I'd decided to take an Orc boss on toe to toe. Ian's support was greatfully recieved and I quickly decided, as scout, to go back to the sneaky stuff with plenty of back-stabbing and missile support.

Mr C, paladinic tank, had earlier bravely held up the big beastie, which he steadfastly refused to harm, for others to take out.

At least that was his explanation for his extremely poor dice!

At last knockings we cleared out the final gaurdroom and got down to some full-on looting before heading back to town for a bit of diplomatic endeavour.

Thankfully Jon's bluff rolls were just as poor as mine!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the bits for my BB Chaos Dwarves have been arriving. I'd forgotten that centigors were almost one piece so the heavy clippers will have to be brought to bear. I also need to try out my hand at sculpting the big persian style ringlet beards.

But first, I MUST remain firm and finish off the Termies (so close!) before allowing shiny newness consume me.

Why must I spoil things by being, an apparant, adult!?

Work In Progress

Having had the day to my self I've made a fair bit of progress with the Terminators :)

I had broken them into 3 groups of 3 for painting but ended up painting them as a 9 to be able to co-ordinate their overall look, which has been important to me, in terms of the whole retro thing a la black and yellow stripe.

So currently they've all been basecoated and washed down. Devlan Mud continues to be a winner though my fortnight prediction will be about a week out!

As the figures are currently a bit dark and it's a night shoot I've left the flash on for the camera as a bit of an experiment. Fairly pleased.


Elsewhere, I've ordered all of the various bits that I'll be needing for my Chaos Dwarf BB Team.

After putting in some serious I-Surfing I gave up on legit hobgoblins and gone for a set of Neomic's excellent goblins through Impact Miniatures. After ordering I was less than impressed to get a confirmation e-mail telling me to allow 4 to 5 weeks for delivery! The figs are worth the wait but that's the wrong way to tell people :(

As a result the PayPal account is suitably dented so my Human travelling freak-show team are being E-Bayed. All of them are very old OOP chaos figures that i'm rather fond of but I never got on with the team, or thier dice! I learnt years ago that i'm a bit of a basher when it comes to Blood Bowl.

To top things off I've finished off Season 4 of BSG. Just need to find where I've left the finale.

Scratching the Itch!!

As previously mentioned i've recently given up on the wargame that first took hold of my young juvenile mind, Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

During the battle of realisation that took part within my 35 year old juvenile mind I found myself gravitating towards the idea of doing a Chaos Dwarf army as a long term hobby project. For some reason I want to sculpt beards?!!

Foolish , foolish boy! Redemption, however, has arrived... with a big spiky ball!!

My club, Enfield Gamers, has recently voted BloodBowl 7s to be our next main campaign. Having previously played a one day tourney I was wondering whether to take my Norse or Humans, at which point inspiration / obsession struck.

With just four weeks until kick off and very little in my armoury I have decided that I would like to play with a fully converted Chaos Dwarf team. I would also like to use non GW figures as much as possible. The old metal Confrontation Dwarves have sprung to mind.

So, working in central London, I will trundle off to Orc's Nest at lunchtime to see what I can find. I will also pop by GW as I want to use an Beastman Centigor body for the Bull Centuar. Update to follow.

As well as featuring BB-7s, from September Enfield Gamers will also be adding an extra night per month, going to three. Regular attendances have risen steadily this year and the success of Uncharted Seas left us with few meeting playing much else.

So we'll be meeting every Second, Third and Fourth Tuesday of the month. The Second and Fourth Tuesdays will primarily be campaign nights with the Third Tuesday reserved for run what you brung open play.

Come and say hello :)

UPDATE: Well that was a waste of a lunchbreak as GW Plaza stock even fewer blisters than Orc's Nest. No single centigors, how's that for service?? Grrrr.

After a bit of browsing I've located the Confrontation figures I want, though they're currently in Canada so confirmation of postage cost is required, though i'm sure i'll pay it anyway ;)

UPDATE UPDATE: Duely purchased! 8 Dwarves to cover 6 Blockers and 2 Bull Centuars. So that will be a full team then. THE DIE HAS BEEN CAST!!

Make way, make way....

...pedant coming through. Keep that lad away madam or he might turn WIERDO to! Then you might have to put him down!!

Day off today and the missus is work. I've done a few chores about the house and run a few errands, mainly stocking up nourishment for the day, I've also been to the post office and picked up my Kaiser Rushforth case. So what to do?

Well, obviously i'm going to stick on Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica, black in ALL of the Space Hulk board sections and tokens (chisle tipped marker) and then chop up the case to make everything fit. Who wouldn't ;)

When Kaiser first appeared sometime ago with thier cardboard cases I joined the ranks of the scoffers. I've since seen them in use and made purchase. Very sturdy, compact storage cases they are but I stil wouldn't want to get caught in a rain shower with one but I have an empty GW shell to cover that eventuality.

No painting points but a happy sense of achievement accompanied by requisite grin. The last 9 Termies are coming along and will be proper old school. Yellow and black striping will be evident.

The scariest thing is that I wanted to sort the case out now so that the last thing I do for the project as a whole is varnish the last figures.

Work tomorrow. Amongst the NORMALS :)

DUST-off

So rather than banging on about how mainstream GW no longer floats my boat I thought it would be rather more positive to concentrate on what does.

Jon recently posted up on the club site about Fantasy Flight Games' upcoming DUST: Tactics release. Specifically my illustrious DM (sycophantic grovel) provided a link to thier promotional video clip showing you the contents of the starter box.

I was and remain impressed and so browsed thier website (see links bar)to be impressed further. I then downloaded the DUST: Tactics rules and had a read through during a lunchbreak. You'll have to the same for the vid due to my technical ineptitude :)


Very much a miniature boardgame in the same vein as AT-43, at least for moment, it's good to see a roll-call of expansions set to follow. There is also the stated intention to follow up with a full table-top wargame but I'm not sure that there's the need or the the current slim and slick rule mechanics would allow.

By no means am I guaranteed to "INVEST" (REALLY??) but will certainly be looking out for the regular updates that are bound to lead up to release. I'm already tempted to purchase just for the gameboards and scenery pieces alone.

Anyway, D&D tonight. We're in a dungeon but, thankfully, with just a wolf. He's a big'un though!

Mugs of teas all round then, .....maybe a hob nob