Week In Review: Hanos And Heroes!

Things happened this week!  In fact, I even managed to play a game!  Shocking, right?  So without ado, let's dive right in!

Harry the Hanomag

The first bit wasn't painting but it's a step forward for the 12th Company!  Introducing their captured half-track, Harry the Hanomag!

Going with my theme for the 12th Company, I had to include a Hanomag in their force.  I have always loved the look of the Sd.Kfz 251 and this is perfect excuse to put one into my army.  In this case, it will be as counts as M3 since the stats for the two vehicles are very similar but it will still let me run with the German version.  This leaves me with one more vehicle to buy but I've already got my eye on one that will give the 12th a wonderfully ragtag look that I am going for.  More on that soon, plus it's time for me to get to painting these guys!

Daqan vs Latari in Song of Blades and Heroes

Next I finished painting that one dude I needed for the Daqan force so it was time to dust off Song of Blades and give it a go again.  I stated up the two forces, set up a table, and away I went!

On the Daqan side, we have three Outland scouts, two crossbowmen, and a single spearman.  This gives the Daqan a good variety of units; the scouts are light while the crossbowmen and spearman both have heavier armor.  Not necessarily that relevant in SoBH given the high level view the system takes of things but I think I was able to capture the different feel of them?  Maybe?

Meanwhile, on the Latari side there are a whole two swordsmen and two bowmen.  That's it.  Nothing else.  When I did their stats I gave them all Forester but... yeah, we'll see how that plays out.

So with the forces set, it was time to hit the table!

For this battle, I decided to just go with a basic meeting engagement; two forces are walking through the countryside and stumble into each other.  Obviously, only one of them can leave here alive.

So... I actually did play through almost the whole game.  I even took pictures of each figures actions going back and forth across the table.  It sounds great, right?  Unfortunately it wasn't.  The lack of any real forests meant that those points were wasted on the Latari and left them at a numerical disadvantage.  Add that to a bunch of horrible dice rolls... yeah.  Back to the drawing board.

The Forester ability isn't worth the points sink that it became and I think that the Latari needed a bump to the Quality.  I had them at Q3+ but I want to kick them up to Q2+.  This will still leave them at disadvantage but the high Quality should help to balance it out better.

And... yeah, that's about it really.  I've been recalled for a few weeks so this week will be focused on packing and moving.  Hopefully there will be some mini time in there as well but... just gonna have to see how this plays out.  Fingers crossed!  Until next time...

Week(s) In Review: Whoopsy! Missed A Couple There!

Yeah, I missed a week... or maybe two... whoops!  To be fair, my schedule has been a bit hectic but, hey, it is what it is.  So did I actually do anything during that time?  Heck yeah, so let's take a look!

Trollbloods of Erehwon

That's right, more Trollbloods!  In fact, I figured out a few units that I have completed!  First up, my Trollblood stone scribes (aka crazed psychotic axe wielding maniacs).

I know that I had mentioned using Madrak as my chieftain (aka the lord) but after thinking about it, I decided that he would be the perfect leader for this unit.  I still have one more of the regular scribes that I could paint up but it's that whole two sculpt problem, especially since I need a leader for the unit.  Throwing in Madrak breaks up their look and he does look pretty badass as well.  Perfect!

Of course this means that I'm missing a leader for my army... or am I?

No I'm not, because I finally repainted Borka!  This picture is kind of dark but I think you get the idea and I just love this sculpt!  He's just an absolute bad ass and I love the idea of being able to use him in a game again.

Latari Elves for Song of Blades and Heroes

I've had an itching to play this game again, and I finally finished my little elven warband.

I thought this would be a good starting point for this force.  It has some balance between ranged and melee so it should be interesting to field them again my Daqan Lords... when I finish them.  I wanted to have a balance force on their side as well but I haven't painted up two crossbowmen yet.  They are started though so I should be able to finish them this week... or I could just be a rebel and play them withoug finishing them!  Craziness!

Funko Madness!

So Funko isn't painting but it is something that I have collected a lot for.  In fact, a lot more than I had realized.  Behold the wall of Funko!

I had stopped picking up sets for this but my friend decided that I had to have some more, in this case the Avengers four pack and the Thanos single.  There are plenty that I missed but I'd completely forgotten how much of this game I had picked up.  As I've said before, it's not a bad game and there's a lot more to it than I expected.  So many combinations you can throw together just for the insanity of it all.

So one of the big problems with this one, is actually what you see above.  There are so many boxes!  It's just not easy to cart around, ya know?  But... I think I have a solution.

This is a Rigid tool case and as you can see, it fits all of the Funkos that I have (30 figures total... for now...) and there is some room to spare in the middle for the tokens, crystals, and dice.  Of course there isn't anywhere for the maps and cards, but I figure I can consolidate most of those into one or two of the four pack boxes.  Overall, this will be much more portable, plus my daughter calls it my murder box.  I mean, look at the thing.  It kind of makes sense; this thing is a beast!  Now to finish packing up the last of the bits then there will be Funko pandemonium!

And There Were Games... Lots And Lots Of Games

Last year, I track a whooping 45 boardgame plays for the entire year.  45!  What the heck, right?  Well this year, we are already up to 25 plays.  In 10 days!!!  It's crazily awesome and I really hope that we keep this momentum going because I've really been enjoying it.

Beyond all of this, there has also been some role playing, both playing and running so there has been map making as well.  Lots and lots of stuff, and it's been a lot of fun, and now I'm headed off to do some more stuff.  Until next time...

Warlords of Erehwon: The Rune Golem of Lord Ramsay the Grey

I've been doing a lot of for the Zone lately, but that hasn't been the only thing on my painting table.  There have been a couple of rune golems sitting on my table for a while, so I decided that it was time to put some paint onto one of them to see how it would look.

He's a little monotone but that kind of fits with the background I've made up for my Knights.  The house troops of the army will be in blue like the spearmen around the rune golem.  These units are going to form the building blocks at the core of my force.  To expand beyond the core, I want to assemble a few more blocks of 250 points so I can plug them into the army in different ways.

The first of these blocks is going to be focused around Baudric the Red (he popped up in this post here).  The next of the blocks is going to be Vallios Ramsay the Grey who will be bringing his "pet" golems to the party.  In addition to a pair of rune golems, Ramsay himself is mounted on a rune steed with two knights to accompany him.

Ultimately I'm thinking I'd like to have a block of peasants that I could put into the force as well, just to have some cheap "troops" to give me more numbers but these are going to wait for now.  I'm planning on getting some of the Fireforge Northmen Folk Rabble for these.  Since they are plastic figures, it should help keep the cost down a bit, but I just realized that I have 60 Stargrave minis, 20 Panzergrenadiers, and a bunch of other Rune Wars minis that I still need to assemble, never mind paint, so I'm thinking I need to slam the brakes on my purchases while I work on the backlog... especially since that's just the plastic figures... and it doesn't include the Ghar army box that I still have yet to crack open.

Oh boy... this might take a bit.  Well, until next time...

Random Updates: BrushFu, Badger Games, and Erehwon Assembled!

Last week was a big one for hobby, not because I was able to get a lot done, but because I had a lot delivered!  First off was an order I placed a while back with BrushFu Studios on Etsy.

My perusing of Etsy started in the beginning of the year, after I got Core Space.  I was looking for cyberpunk style miniatures and Etsy has a good selection of them available.  I stumbled across BrushFu Studios and liked what they had to offer but unfortunately they were taking a break at the time.  Still, my hobby was slowing down at the time anyway so I added to my cart and just let it sit there until they were back.

When they did open back up, BrushFu was right up front with the fact that they had a lot of orders to fill and to expect orders to take three weeks to ship.  I was in no rush and I really appreciated the honest about this so I went ahead and ordered.

Fast forward about two weeks and I received a shipping notification, and then the minis themselves a couple of days sooner than the USPS predicted.  I haven't had a chance to really start working on them, but I did check them all out and even gave them a wash to I can start work on them.

From what I have seen, the prints are very clean and crisp.  There are a couple of thin strands from the printing but they will be easy enough to clean up before I get to painting them.  All told, I had ordered ten minis.  Three of those came with bases attached but they threw in eight cyber bases as well which I wasn't expecting.  All in all a good shopping experience and I've already got a bunch more minis queued up in my shopping cart for my next order from BrushFu.

About the time that package showed as shipped, I started see people posting about the Stargrave Nickstarter coming in which got me wondering if might might arriving soon.  I tried to log into the Badger Games website but couldn't remember my password and the system wouldn't let me reset it.  A couple of quick emails to them, and they had it sorted out then my package of goods was sitting on my doorstep!

I don't have pictures of these sets, but I did take a quick look at each of the sprues and man are there a ton of options!  Lots of heads, weapons, and various little gribblies, plus the Nickstarter comes with a sprue of gnolls and cultists for even more options.  Looking forward to getting these into the que at some point and fleshing out my options for Core Space and Five Parsecs From Home.

Last but not least, I even managed to do a little bit of actual hobby! Ages ago I started buying miniatures for a couple of Warlords of Erehwon armies using the now defunct Runewars figures.  I'd made a bit of headway before I was called back to the home office last year, but since then it has just been in a holding pattern.  Last night I decided that I might as well at least assemble the figures that were sitting on my table in baggies and it wound up being a pretty impressive looking horde.

Of course I still need to paint them all but at least now I have a better idea just what I have which is handy.  I had been thinking about getting some more of the crossbowmen and scouts but I'm thinking this is good enough, especially since this isn't including all the spearmen I have as well.  I also did some quick math on the points and just these figures were just shy of 1000 points (minus the wizard and priest at the front, and the standard bearer and musician which don't have stats).  Adding in the leader, champion, spearmen, and rune golems to the mix and it's gotta be around 2000 points which should be more than I'll ever need... in theory anyway.  Now I just need to paint them... along with the Nickstarter...  and the printed minis...  Oh boy...  I think I better start painting again soon!  Until next time...

Workbench: A New Crew and More Elves!

I've continued working on my Runewars elves this week and I am enjoying painting these minis.  There is a good depth to the details and they are at least 32mm which is a great combination for painting.  Makes it a little challenging to mix them in with other minis, but I have enough floating around to field at least 750 points for Erehwon and whole lot more in SoBH so this shouldn't be an issue.

Beyond the two army boxes that I've picked up (at less than $25 for 22 minis, how can you go wrong?), I've also added a box of swordsmen and the command attachment to my collection.  There are still a couple more of the leaders that I'm considering adding but even without these extras, I have enough options available to me with just these figures to field a well rounded army.  Standard for the Runewars line is a variety of poses as well.  Within the infantry units there are four distinct poses, while cavalry and large critters have two poses, letting you avoid the carbon copy appearance that you usually find with cheap miniatures... which these normally aren't.  Unit boxes MSRP for $25 but since FFG dropped the line, the surplus has been lurking on Amazon for over a year now for some great discount prices.  As I've mentioned before, they are a bit larger than your typical minis (kind of the Legion minis compare to the old Imperial Assault minis) but for the price they really are hard to beat.

And speaking of that other line that was abandoned by FFG, I haven't just been focusing on the fantasy side either.  I've been searching around for some sci-fi 28mm minis to put together my own crew for Core Space.  There are a good number of cyberpunk style prints on Etsy that I'm looking at picking up, but I also have my figures from Imperial Assault that have been sitting around gathering dust (like I I tied that all together there?).  I'm not going to try to stat them up accordingly, I'm just looking at the aesthetics of the figures and then I'll make them as my own characters using the Core Space rules.  Their stories have already been told elsewhere so it's time to hear about someone else, such as the crew of the trader vessel, the Avadora.

First up is Captain Delany Peirson (aka Jyn Odan).

I've always liked this figure though I'd though about staying away from it since she is crouched down.  I usually try to stay away from minis like that as it feels a bit like I'm gaming the system by having a figure with less of a profile for LoS.  I like the gunslinger feel that she has though so I decided she is a must have to lead my crew.

To lend a hand in the role of the heavy is Korbin Donham (aka Biv Bodhrik).

I'd already painted him to go into my GoA privateer list as support trooper with a micro-x launcher so he is the perfect to lend some firepower to the crew.

Next up is Ekaf Noran (aka one of the rebel saboteurs) as the tech.

Originally I was going to use Saska Teft as the tech for the crew, but then I saw this guy when I was pulling out Biv's mini.  This is another mini that I've always liked and for some reason the blue skin tone just makes me happy.  With all his additional kit, he is the perfect fit for the role of the tech as well.

Finally I'm going to round out the crew with Fasrak Pas'deral (aka Mak Eshka'rey).

He is another last mini substitution as I was planning on using Hera Syndulla as the pilot for the ship, but Mak is already finished and this is another mini that I like so it only makes sense to use him to round out the crew.

I want to work up some backstories for them all, but that will be for another day.  For now, I glad to have them all painted up and (almost) ready to go.  Plant life might not be the best match for a game that is set primarily on space ships and stations, but it's gonna work for my guys.  They are just taking being green to a whole new level!  Until next time...

Workbench: Core, Paint, Elves, and Acrylic... So Much At Once!

Man was last week a helluva week!  Nothing life shattering, and in fact more eye opening in some regards, but it did put the blog onto the back burner for a bit.  Life happens, ya know?  Thankfully I've still been able to get a fair amount of hobby in though, so I figure it's time to hit the highlights!

It all started last weekend when my new paints came in!  I knew that I ordered a bunch but actually seeing them was something else.

The top row of nine are the replacements, but the other 27 are all new.  So many options now!  And since I have all this paint now, it only made sense to get a better way to store them as well.

This is 6 shelf acrylic tray that I picked up from Amazon.  I've seen these before at nail salons and the like, but it never occurred to me to pick one up for myself until a friend on mine on Instagram posted pictures of his hobby space.  This makes things so much easier as most of my collection is right there at a glance, though I still have more that don't have homes yet.  Looks like I'm going to need to pick up another one of these in the near future!

I've also been making headway with my Core Space minis.  In fact, the crew of the Ion Hope are now done!

I'm happy with how these turned out, and I really feel like I'm starting to push myself further with them as well.  For example, I used to mostly rely on GW shades to give my paint schemes some depth, but now I'm mixing and blending colors more to create these transitions.  I've also started using a larger brush more, even for the finer details.  It seems counterintuitive but the reasoning actually makes sense.  With a larger brush, the bristles have a larger belly which means it will hold more liquid.  This keeps the paint flowing better than on a smaller size brush, and as long as there is a good tip then it works fairly well.  I feel like I've been getting better control with this approach as well.

I also started working on the crew of the Black Moria as well though I've only started to scrape the surface with this crew.

Then again, if you don't have a captain, how can you have the crew?  I'll start working on them soon but I've also started working on another little project again.  Over a year ago I'd picked up a number of Runewars minis for a crazy discount.  My thought had been to use them for a Warlords of Erehwon but then Covid happened and that project was set aside for a time.  Just this past week, I started to get the itch to get some Song of Blades and Heroes to the table so I broke out more of these Runewars minis and started painting up some of the elves.

This archer is the furthest along, but his buddies are close behind...

All of these guys add up to just over 200 points.  Pair these off against some of my human warriors that are already painted and I'm looking at a nice little conflict to push around so I can get back into the swing of things.  I'm even thinking about introducing my daughter to the game since she is on Spring break!  We've played things like Frostgrave before but time always seems to be a limiting factor nowadays.  Hopefully the quick nature of SoBH will help up get past that and have some fun trying to slaughter each other!

Well, that about sums it up for now but it's great to be moving forward with my hobby again!  Can't wait to push around SoBH again, and I might even try to post a battle report as well!  Just pure craziness, let me tell you!  Until next time...

Workbench: Spearmen, Space Barrels, and Some Gardening Too!

More progress on the painting challenge but things have been going... a bit... slower...

I've started work on the spearmen that I had drybrushed and I've gotten half of them painted already.

I decided to split knight army up a little bit to add some flavor to the whole thing.  The soldiers in blue are the affiliated with the Crown and will form the core of my army.

In addition to these core troops, one of the two leaders for the army will be Baudric the Red (aka Lord Hawthorne from the Daqan forces of Runewars).

His set comes with a mounted figure and one on foot which will give me some options in the army as well.  Baudric is definitely the more imposing of the two figures so if I field the full army, then he will move into the champion slot.  Beside Baudric is one of the mounted knights that will accompany him, plus I will be painting up a unit of spearmen in his colors as well.

The next items are terrain pieces.  Nothing too fancy but I'm excited to have them to add into the mix.  What are they?

Spaaaaaace barrels!!!  (this is a call out to Table Top Warlords YouTube channel... check them out if you haven't already!)  I'll admit that I have no idea what Kevin made his out of but I made mine from assorted plastic bottle lids hot glued together, then painted.  Quick and easy!

Last but not least, I added some detailing to my plant terrain.  Originally I was going for quick and easy so I didn't bother with any ground cover.  Well, I decided that it was time to change that up so I hit Michael's and grabbed some lichen.

This is just a sample of but you at least get the idea.  It's just a minor touch but I really like how it added some realism and depth to the pieces.  I've been holding off on setting up my full terrain board since I'm going to be bouncing rooms again soon but once I'm in a more permanent location, I'll have to see what I can do.  Still more to do this month but this is a good start for this month!  Until next time...

Workbench: And the Painting Continues!

January is wrapping up and I've made great headway with my painting challenge!  I posted earlier that I was up to 21 minis painted but I've blown past that all the way up to 33!  On top of that, I even made a cheap little "light box" so I can take some better pictures of my minis as I go along.  So without further ado, let's see what I've gotten done!

After picking up my tectorists, I had to grab the next mini that has been on my radar ever since it came out; the Hukk bounty hunter for Gates of Antares.  In addition to the hunter himself, the blister also comes with three angkriz hunting beasts.

These take up a tactical slot and operate together as a unit.  They can also be used by all of the factions, including the Ghar due to their alien nature.  The unit is highly customizable (as long as you have the points that is)  and gives you number of options for the models to go with him.  In my case, I maxed out his drone compliment, giving him a spotter, medi-probe, and two shield drones.

The trickiest thing about these minis is figuring out what to paint which color.  These are completely alien beasties so it really is just up to your imagination.  For mine, I decided to paint the hunter and beasts with bone colored carapaces, while the skin tones are similar to the one paint scheme that Warlord has shown for these critters.  As for the drones, these were an open canvas as well.  Since these are buddy drones that the hunter has picked up over time, it really opens up the palette for them.  I even custom built one of the shield drones just so they would look more ramshackle.

And next is the first mini for my Warlords of Erewhon knight army.  I was originally looking at going with an undead army but it sounds like they're pretty popular at the store (go figure) so the knights were a good second option.

These minis are some of the Daqan outland scouts from the now defunct Runewars game by FFG.  In addition to this set of minis, I also grabbed not one but two core sets so I've got a bunch of minis to work with.  There are a few more figures that I need to pick up to round things out but by the end I should have two full armies for a discount price which is always a plus in my book.

For next month, I've already got a head start as I have 16 Daqan spearmen already drybrushed just waiting for paint so I should be able to push through those really quick.  Of course the Antares Facebook group is trying to distract me with talk about running Zona Alfa reskinned with an Antares flavor.  This sounds like an amazing idea and has me thinking of the possibilities of sci-fi/pulp adventures.  Must stay strong and focus... argh!!!  Until next time... unless I get lost in some long abandoned research station looking for the lost arc of the Concord.  Wish me luck!