Thursday 28 May 2015

Antares Boromites - Review

I have bought my first Antaran miniatures at Salute and went for Boromites. These are mining and heavy industry trade guilds with heavily modified bodies,

This is a work gang and heavy mining borer.


These are large GW-sized heroic models. They needed a bit of cleaning up, flash removing, mould lines filed, that sort of thing. Definition is good and Army Painter Soft tone made a nice hard shell with just the right amount of shading.

I went for orange equipment as this is supposedly civil gear. The Boromites were base painted in sand and given a greenish tint with the soft tone.

I like them and will buy some more. They have some cool mining beasts and gangers wiv guns: sorry reverted into ork-speak there for a mo - can't think why.

Recommended.

Wednesday 27 May 2015

KIngs of War Undead

The Army of Evil continues to grow: queue Vincent Price.

I can now field about 1000 pts of troops with about another 500 or so of heroes.

1 Regiment and 1 troop of Revenant Cavalry.
1 Horde and 1 regiment of zombies
1Regiment of gouls
1 Troops of Revenenant Skeletons
1 Regiment and two troops of skeletons
1 skull catapult.

Plenty more to paint.


Sepp Blatter Resasures Supporters

Sepp Blatter reassures his Daleks that it will be business as usual.

Epic!


Photograph by Jade Coxon, an 18 yr old photographic student.

Tuesday 26 May 2015

OldHammer Kings of War Skeleton Chariots





Painted up my first two OldHammer Undead Chariots for my Kings of War army: one was well painted already so I largely kept the colour scheme.

Two chariots make a troop and four a regiment in KoW terms.

I love this model, much better than the Tomb Kings Chariots.

More on the way from eBay.


Monday 25 May 2015

Kingfisher on Rainham Marshes

Spent 45 mins waiting for a Kingfisher to appear on Rainham Marshes. Managed to get this shot via a Nikon Coolpix on the back of a Nikon scope balanced on one leg, the tripod not me, amidst a group of excited kids, behind a net.

:)



Sunday 24 May 2015

Flampanzer II, Flamingo

I've seen some dirted up tanks in my time but this one takes the biscuit.

Beautifully painted model by Matt.

Simon's Den

Popped around to a friend's house for a game of Bolt action. While I was there I took a picture of his wargaming den.



Kings of War Beta V2, Undead vs Elves

 Army of Johannus of Kernow deploys for battle

Played a game of Kings of War using the new V2 Beta rules against my regular opponent, Shaun.

We used a constrained table and just 1000 point armies to represent a battle to seize an important road junction in a valley.

I fielded my skeleton undead lead by the Revanant King Johannus of Kernow and Shaun generaled a bunch of ballet-dancing elves.



Elf Blocking Force

The Elves appear out of a tastefully tinted azure mist in big blocks to hold the valley. First blood to Johannus when his skull thrower worked over one of the archer blocks.


View from the poetry spouters' catapult

Shaun's catapult returned the favour, giving my ghouls a few extra body spikes.




The thunder of tiny hooves

Enraged when the ghouls disparage their brass rubbings, the Elven cavalry puts in a charge.



Ghouls leg it

The ghouls do a runner but the Elven cavalry are not exactly in great shape either and the zombies approach at their best speed - about 2 KPH. Meanwhile general fighting occurs across the valley and the beat up bowmen break under my Revenant Cavalry attack.



The Undead left wing collapses


Things start to look a bit iffy for Johannus as the Zombie and Skeleton regiments remember an urgent appointment elsewhere.



Elves call it a day

The Elves come within one attack of breaking the undead army and then their left disintegrates.
As so often happens, a KoW game comes right down to the last few die rolls and could have gone either way.

It's interesting that my two favourite pick up games at the moment, Bolt Action & Kings of War, are both Cavatore designs.

Friday 22 May 2015

Apology

A Canadian gentleman sent me an email via this blog.

Due to incompetence I have managed to lose it before replying.

Please can you send it again and I will give you the courtesy of a reply?

John

Fantasy Flight - Forbidden Stars

Astonishingly Forbidden Stars is reviewed in the Guardian.

They generally like it and give it four stars.

The comments underneath make interesting reading.


Tuesday 19 May 2015

Forces of Hell


The Forces of the Abyss (aka Hell) are coming to Kings of War and I for one think they look rather fine.


I can see myself getting some of these. They are very Hell-themed, which I like.


I can feel a new army coming on.......

Sunday 17 May 2015

Nurgle's Flies

Just when I thought I'd finished my Nurgle Army, Spellcrow have to come up with these.

IHMN, Red Van man

A kid's toy with an Empress driver model aboard.

The world is full of inexpensive diecast models.

Now I need to get some horses.



Warhammer round bases

Round Warhammer bases spotted at Warhammer World.

And this means?

Who knows.

Saturday 16 May 2015

Kings of War - Skeleton Heroes


Added a couple of heroes to my Kings of War Undead, the King and the Standard Bearer.

Mantic metal models.

Thursday 14 May 2015

Clematis

My wife is a keen gardner, and rabbit is a keen garden wrecker but he has trouble getting at my wife's Clematis. This year it is superb.

Review, Warbase Lancia Triota Armoured Lorry


Warbase is another of the lasercut wood model kit manufacturers that have sprung up in recent years, often offering versions of the more unusual vehicles not covered by the major companies. That makes them eminently suitable for lesser gamed periods such as WWI or Inter-War.

The kit consists of wood and cardboard and is very fiddly. Slender pieces of wood such as the axles break easily during the assembly process, although the finished model is robust.

The kit is 1:56 so is a little on the small side against modern 28mm figs. The Pig Iron model shown above is only an average 28mm.

It comes without assembly instructions but Warbase email pdfs to the buyer. Mine got lost for various reasons and I assembled this model without instructions - which was probably an error. Warbase emailed replacements to me within 24 hours of asking, which is excellent customer service.

I used a solvent-based cellulose primer and Citadel textured paint to add mud. The wooden sections are heavily grooved making details of the armour, door handles etc stand out against the paint.

Laser cut models are starting to approach the limit of what is possible with this material. They are great at large flat squarish geometric structures like buildings but more questionable for small weight bearing or rounded components - hence cardboard.

I recommend this kit despite some reservations because (i) it is excellent value for money, (ii) an unusual vehicle and (iii) the finished product looks good and does the job. It's just the sort of vehicle you want for the paramilitary conflicts of the interwar years. But be prepared for a modelling challenge.

Below are some images of the real thing as used in Ireland (sources from various internet pages).

RUC Lancia

A good shot showing the vehicle size against a soldier.


Being used as an IFV or patrol waggon.

Used as an armoured shield by a field gun crew bombarding a rebel-held building.





Wednesday 13 May 2015

OldHammer

A little gem off eBay for my Kings of War Undead.

Review, Sarissa Open Lorrry (51)

The completed model
When finished the Sarissa Lorry is not too bad as a backdrop terrain piece for any conflict set between about 1914 to 1945 including Russia and other isolated places.

The finished model is also  robust and light so easy to store.

But that ends the good news and the rest is downhill.

Clock the awful steering wheel and the way the bonnet is made from stuck together layers. It is impossible to get those into line without a great deal more patience than the average wargamer is likely to enjoy. The rear had one of those tow bars you find on toy train sets. OK it's easy enough to snip off but the whole kit has a Noddy-Toytown feel.

The plans

Not the easiest model I have ever put together, the tiny chassis pieces and axles are very difficult to get off the sprue without fracture.

Including Empress driver

Scaling is another issue. I painted up a driver from Empress to go in the cab. Hmmm!  Empress models tend to be on the small size for 28 mm but they're not that small.

Empress driver in 1:43 diecast

To make the point here is an Empress model in a 1:43 (28mm nominally covers about 1:56 to 1:48) diecast model. 

Regretfully I can't recommend this model not even at its low price of £7.50. Spend more and get a resin lorry from one of the many  ranges from other manufacturers, notably Bolt Action, Sloppy Jalopy, Shattered Empires.

Monday 11 May 2015

Chaos Marines

I sweated blood painting this lot but...I need the space and I have lots of marines.

To eBay, you go.





Pig Iron Kolony Feral Troops

The time has come for a cull so I'm putting my Pig Iron Kolony Feral troops up on eBay.

Great soldiers but I already have a very similar Vrak Army - so....

The full army.

A little display tableau.



Thursday 7 May 2015

KoW - The Shuffling Hordes

The Army of Evil grows, mwah, ha, ha, ha, ............gurgle.

I have upgraded my Skeletons of Nergal to a Regiment and hence unlocked a skull thrower.


Bolt Action - Pacific Massacre

Banzai!


It's dawn, 1944, a small island in the Pacific.

Elite American marines have landed and are making their way inland having broken through the coastal defences. The Japanese General order an immediate banzai charge with his remaining troops. The assault in this sector bumps straight into an American infantry team equipped with flamethrowers - about the only thing that will stop charging Japanese infantry.

I'm playing the Imperial Army and Simon the marines. The Japanese are regulars except for a small group, which I'll come to.

The Japanese reinforced platoon consists of two squads of assault troops armed with rifles and two fire support troops with a light mortar and an LMG.

In support they have a light artillery piece, a medium mortar, an MMG, an old tankette with LMG and a Ha Go light tank (aka Vickers 6 ton).

The photo shows the assault squad led by a sword-armed lieutenant storming towards the Americans.

The thin green line.

The view from the American left flank, which is bearing the brunt of the Japanese assault. The marine unit on the hill has taken serious casualties from the Japanese fire support teams.

 Eye in the sky.

An American float plane off one of the cruisers out in the bay makes a low level run in an effort to identify targets in the melee. The Japanese have no AA weapons and are helpless, although a veteran suicide anti-tank man attempts to bring the floatplane down with its shaped-charge-on-a-pole.

On its second run the plane misidentifies the Marine section on the right flank as Japanese and wipes them out with napalm before returning back to its ship with the satisfaction of a job well done.



Contact!

The Japanese assault teams reach the American line.


Sea of flame.

Marine flamethrowers turn the woods in front of them into a sea of flame, slaughtering most of the attacking IJA. Nevertheless, a few survivors stagger out to slaughter the American squad in front of them before succumbing to a second burst from the tank's flamethrower.

Kaboom!

A lucky shot from the Ha Go's light anti-tank gun sets off the Stuart's flame tank and it explodes catastrophically.

The disheartened marines fall back leaving the field to the Japanese infantry, such of them that are still alive.

It was a massacre.

Lessons
1. Charging with large cheap units is possibly the best Japanese tactic but next time I'll give them anti-tank grenades.
2. Flamethrowers are the only thing guaranteed to stop the Japanese because you have to kill them.
3. Air support is dodgy (Simon threw a 1, which was the turning point of the game).
4. Marines versus Japanese is great fun: firepower versus numbers and fanaticism.