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!

Workbench: Ghar and Algoryn and Distortion, Oh My!

(Just a quick note...  I took pictures of these minis again with my highly advanced, extremely expensive light box.  Yeah, it's made out of a cardboard box, some duct tape, and a sheet of printer paper.  Really advanced, let me tell ya!  Anyway, these are cleaner pics so I thought I'd update this post but nothing else has changed.  And now back to our regularly scheduled Dispatch already in progress...)

As I mentioned previously, I have been making some good headway with the  2020 Painting Challenge.  I was going to wait until the month was finished and just do all of my minis in a massive update but I've also had very little time for the blog since I've been painting... and watching the Office.  Damn you Tim!

But I digress...

Instead of waiting, I've decided that I should post them as I go since I am painting units at a time.  Far more efficient plus it makes it easier to maintain the same color scheme when it's fresh in your mind.  So without further ado, here is the start of my Painting Challenge!

For my first ones out of the gate I had to go with my brand new Ghar tectorists.  I've wanted to add these to my Ghar army for a while now but I haven't been able to pick any up until earlier this month.

These troops act as probes for the Ghar forces, scouring the battlefield for enemy targets and helping their own troops rain disruptor death on them!  Mechanically this lets a Ghar unit reroll one miss if there is one or more Tectorists within 15".  Always a handy thing plus I really like the models.

In addition to the tectorists, I also decided to slap some paint onto one of my spare order dice (Which I forgot to include in the picture.  Oops!  I'll be sure to post a pic of it later).  This is a special die that is used when there are Ghar forces on the table.  The archaic technology highly unstable and even distorts time itself!  In the game, you are supposed to add one unique die to the bag with the other order dice, making the distortion effect a result of the order die pull in the turn which I think is a good way to handle it.  And since it is supposed to be a unique die, I decided to kick it up a bit and paint it like I've painted the plasma reactors on my battle suits.

Next I decided to hop factions and finish some of my unit options for my Algoryn.  Even with all the troops that I've previously painted, for some reason I just never got to the rest of the spotter drones so it was time to amend that.

As with the tectorists, spotter drones also allow rerolls but unlike the Ghar troops, these little robots hang out with their assigned unit.  In the case of these four, the three in green are for my x-launcher teams and mag cannon while the more traditional red is for my assault squad.

And speaking of the mag cannon, I finally finished painting up this imposing piece of support weaponry.

The mag cannon only rolls a single die when it fires but if it hits... well, if it was a person, they are now pink mist and vehicles won't fare much better.  Not only does it pack a massive punch, its maximum range is 100 inches!  Of course you still need line of sight but that's still an insane range for a table top miniature game... until you look at the next one.

This is the first of my two x-launcher teams.  Unlike the mag cannon, the x-launcher doesn't need line of sight if you have spotter drones that can see your target.  This lets you hide them behind cover and still lob shells down on the enemy.  This is also one of the few weapons that has five optional ammo types besides it regular explosive round.

And when you consider that you can lob these shells up to 120"...  Sure, you might not hit but just the threat is enough to make your opponent take notice!

With all these extra troops fighting for Algor, it was only fitting to command squad so they can lead them all into battle.

Unlike regular AI troopers, the command squad is equipped with the slightly more potent plasma carbines.  These have slightly less range that a standard mag gun but make up for it with two modes of fire, one with better penetration while the other has a higher rate of fire.

I also decided that it was time to change up the scheme on my AI troopers as well and repainted their shoulder pads so they had the traditional red.

I think this ties them in better with my assault troopers and its also easier than doing the tribal pattern on each shoulder.  I am thinking about going back and doing a different mark for each squad as well but one step at a time.

And that's what I have so far!  21 minis not including the repaints but there is more to come soon, hopefully with some better lighting if I can remember to grab a light from home.  So there might be more pics of these guys in better light as well but fear not... the Hukk is coming.  Until next time...

Random Updates: The 2020 Painting Challenge!

Just about the end of last year, I joined the FB group for a local game store where I'm hoping to finally play some Gates of Antares. One of the first things they announced was the 2020 Painting Challenge.  The idea is for the group as a whole to paint at least 2020 minis this year.  In addition, the guy that put up the post challenged us to each paint 366 minis this year.  This seemed like a great motivation, so I dove right in.

So far I've been making great progress and I'm even hoping to be able to have more minis painted for the year than I buy!  Now that would be an accomplishment!  That's all for now but there will be more to come.  Until next time...

Snowman's 2019 Year In Review!

It's another year in the books so what happened here in Snowman's Land?

Yes, I Play With Toy Soldiers...
Total minis bought... Ummm... a bunch?
Total minis painted...  Not as many as that but still a good amount.
Terrain pieces built...  More than last year?

Just like last year, I haven't been keeping track of how many minis I've picked up this year but I've expanded my Antares, Wrath of Kings, and Bolt Action armies, plus I've picked up two copies of the discontinued Runewars Miniature Game from FFG (because picking up dead games is what I do....).

Of course I haven't had a lot of chance to make use of any of them which kind of sucks.  Back in April I entered the last phase of my training rotation for work which took me out of state during the week.  That was supposed to last for three months but then I decided that I liked it and it's become "permanent" (meaning two to three years minimum...).  This has been good for us as a family for the most part but my hobby has become even more nonexistent.  I have been able to find some local game stores down here though and exploring those is on the top of my list for the new year.

That said, there were still some highlights from the year, especially Stewie and the Big Cheese.  Stewie was born out of spite and the Big Cheese was just the logical evolution of the process but both of them were part of some really fun moments for me with Bolt Action.

I've also been able to get most of my Antares minis painted which was good but I was also able to start rebuilding my terrain "library".  I hadn't taken the time to focus on this but I decided it was time to make that change and I'm really happy with the results so far.

Not only did I make a bunch of wilderness terrain, I made some good headway for a frontier outpost as well.  There is still more that I am going to do but this is definitely a great start.

Total games played... a whooping 52

Things definitely slowed down this year which isn't really much of a surprise.  Being away from the house so much means that a lot of my time has been tied up in maintenance and upkeep on the weekends.  Not the ideal but unfortunately sometimes ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.  Even so, we were able to get some games to the table at least.  Most of them were one or two offs, but I did manage to get a few repeats in there.

Coming in at number 4, the Funkoverse Strategy Board Game.  Unfortunately it was only a few solo plays to see how the mechanics play out but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  There is some surprising depth to the some of the mechanics.  So far I've picked up both of the four packs (DC and Harry Potter) and one of the expandables (DC again) but I want to get some more of them... and actually play it against another person.  Crazy, right?

At number 3, I've got a two way tie between Azul and 5-Minute Dungeon.  I'd seen Azul on the Geek but never thought of giving it a try but it was a lot of fun.  As for 5-Minute, that was a spur of the moment buy at Wal-Mart of all places.  Fun game as well but man is it hard!  I don't think that we ever actually finished the full game but we still had fun with it.

Number 2 is Beyond the Gates of Antares... though this one was solo play only again.  I wanted to get my head around the rules since it is different than Bolt Action and I really enjoy it.  In fact, I've even tracked down a gaming store not too far away and already been in touch with them about getting in some games there.  Really looking forward to getting this to the table soon.

And... number 1 at 14 plays, just one shy of last year, once again is Unusual Suspects.  This game is always a blast and I actually wish that we'd gotten it to the table more.  Guess that'll be a goal for this year.

And that's another year in the books!  This new year should see some changes though as I've found a store that wants to get Gates of Antares going so those minis should finally be seeing some action.  On top of that, I want to make more terrain so that I can bring it with me to the store to give a few more options for people to use that have a more unified look.

Add to that our ongoing Out of the Abyss 5e game that we are looking to put into parking orbit for a bit, the Ghosts of Saltmarsh game I will be running in its place, plus just a general desire to get my other games off of the shelves and onto the table...  Yeah, I'm going to make this a good year.  Until next time...